God of Illusion, Host of the Devil's Arm
by Thanathos
Summary: Naruto's sister was chosen for the sealing. The Yondaime lived. Despite his talent and hard work, Naruto slowly faded into the background of his sister. He suffered a crippling accident. His desperate attempt to fix himself will change the world.
1. Prologue: The Sealing

God of Illusion, Wielder of the Devil's Arm

Chapter 1

"Talk/SHOUT"

'Thinking'

"_**Bijuu/Summon"**_

"_**God"**_

"_Jutsu"_

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

* * *

Minato Namikaze sat in his office, practically pulling out his hair. The greatest of the nine bijuu was getting closer to Konoha with every second, shinobi dying to stall it and he sat here without a solution how to stop it.

The only thing he found out was that it was impossible to kill a bijuu. There had been millions of tries, but not a single success. Sealing was possible, and ironically, it was his own specialty, but sealing a bijuu got exponentially harder the higher up the hierarchy it was, and the Kyuubi stood at the very top.

There had been a few notes about jinchuuriki and bijuu, but the only thing he got on the Kyuubi was that it had never been sealed before and that it was female. Thank you very much asshole, knowing the gender really helps in getting rid of it. What was he supposed to do, offer free sweets, shoes and clothing if it left?

Then he found something in the forbidden section. It was a ritual that summoned the Shinigami himself, who then ripped the soul out of your enemy, marking you and devouring both your and the enemy's souls. A last-ditch effort. But what was the point in marking the user if he died along with his victim? Unless... it was a sealing!

Minato delved into his research with new vigor, and after confirming that it was indeed a sealing-ceremony, he started to make adjustments. Since it was a sealing, it should be possible to control where exactly the target was to be sealed. He knew that if he sealed the Kyuubi into an object, it wouldn't take a week and the beast was free once more, being far too strong to be locked in a teapot like the Shukaku. If an animal was used, the Kyuubi would take control before you could say "Oh shit", since no animal had the willpower or mentality required to keep it at bay. The only possibility was a human. Ideally, he would seal it in himself, then drag them both to hell, but he wasn't sure if the Kyuubi had a trick that would allow it to escape the Shinigami's clutches. Any other adult was out too, seeing that an adult's, even a child's chakra-network was already too solidified to handle the sudden influx of chakra. The only thing that could adapt... was an infant.

Minato felt a new hight of despair. He would not have hesitated for a second to sacrifice his own life, but to drag an innocent life into this? Especially since he knew that only two babies would be born in time for the sealing; his own.

Kushina was pregnant with twins and her water had broke a few minutes ago. He was going to have a son and a daughter. And he would have to seal the Kyuubi in one of them. Even if another mother gave birth early, Minato knew that he couldn't ask anyone to give up their child if he was not willing to give up his.

So the only bitter question was which one to seal it in. he weighed his options and eventually came to the conclusion that sealing it in his daughter would be the best option.

Sealing a being of one sex into a being of the other sex was always risky, as it kept host and prisoner from properly bonding, something Kumo had learned when they sealed the Nibi into a man, who during his life not only had little contact with his bijuu and never got beyond using a bit of raw chakra that was useless for any kind of jutsu, but had miserable chakra-control all together, as the different chakras violently disrupted each other. On the fortieth anniversary of the sealing, the man had spontaneously combusted, the explosion taking out almost a tenth of Kumo, the suddenly free Nibi smashing another fifth before it was caught and resealed, this time into a girl.

No, it was better to seal a female into another female. The Nibi had destroyed a tenth of Kumo, Minato had no interest in finding out how big of a boom the Kyuubi would make.

He spent the next three hours designing the seal that would hold the Kyuubi, before heading to Kushina, his heart heavy.

* * *

Kushina held her babies in her arms, smiling at both of them. Naruto looked just like his father, while Natsuki was her spitting image. They were crying, and honestly she couldn't blame them, as she could feel the Kyuubi's chakra, the beast most likely approaching the gates at this moment. "Sh, it's okay. Don't worry, daddy will find a way to save the day, that's what your daddy does best. Naruto, Natsuki, it'll be fine."

Tsunade, who had returned to Konoha to help her friend Kushina through what has been called the most painful time in a woman's life, was not so sure, and she could see that Kushina's confidence in her husband was not absolute either.

Speak of the devil, there he came, with an expression appropriate for a funeral. This did not look good.

Minato looked at his wife, knowing this would be the last time he'd ever see her. He forced himself to smile. "Hello Kushina, how are you doing? Are the children alright?"

Kushina gave him a weak smile. "Natsuki and Naruto are just fine, and according to Tsunade, I'm out of the woods. What about you? Did you find something?"

Minato nodded. "I researched, and found out that while it's impossible to destroy the Kyuubi, I can seal it away. I know the jutsu and I've already designed the array."

Kushina smiled, relieved. "That's wonderful darling. Why do you look so down?"

Minato wished he could keep quiet, but he knew that would not only betraying Kushina, but that it simply wouldn't work. Still, how do you tell your wife that you will die sealing a monster into her child? "Well..."

Tsunade looked at him. "There's a catch, isn't there?"

She had always been sharp, and as a medic, reading people was child's play. "Yes. There are two."

Kushina looked at him. "What are they?"

Minato gulped. "For the sealing to work, I... I need to sacrifice my life."

Kushina's eyes widened. "No." She whispered. "Tell me it's not true."

Minato glanced at her. "I can't. To seal the Kyuubi, I need to summon the Shinigami."

Kushina sobbed. "It's not fair! After all we've been through, after all we've lost, after the war, now that we finally came this far, it just ends like this? Now that we finally have children, they will never know their father? It's just not fair!"

Tsunade looked at him, her eyes sympathizing, yet sharp. "Was that the other catch?"

Minato couldn't look her or Kushina in the eyes. "No." He finally whispered, his voice sounding as if he had fought down a sob.

Kushina was not really paying attention. After this news, what could be worse? Tsunade asked. "What is?"

Minato stared at the floor, his voice trembling. "The only thing that can hold, that could hope to keep the Kyuubi at bay, is..." He paused, having to gather all his strength not to break down in tears "...is an infant."

Kushina stared at him, wide-eyed. Then she pulled her children closer to her chest. "No." she stated, her panicked voice steadily increasing in volume. "No, you can't. Not them. NO! I WON'T LET YOU! NOT OUR CHILDREN! NO!!!"

Minato slammed his fist into the wall, tears now running down his face as well. "DO YOU THINK I WANT TO DO THIS?!" He shouted, before taking a deep breath. "Kushina, I've looked through every possible source. I've searched everywhere. If I seal the fox in an object, the object will break! If I seal it in an animal, the fox will take over! If I try to take it down with me, it may escape me, as it and I would have no time for our souls to connect, so I'd have no hold! And nobody with set chakra-coils could possibly survive the sealing! There is nobody else Kushina!" He grew quiet, small sobs escaping his lips. "There is nobody else."

Tsunade hesitantly patted his back. This once again showed her that the title of Hokage was more of a burden and a curse than anything else. Here stood a man, a loving husband and fresh father, who had to not only sacrifice his life in his best years, but damn his own child to house a demon. The job sucked, and that was it.

After nearly an hour, Minato left the room with Natsuki and a broken heart. He knew that he had to do it, but that didn't make him feel any better about it. If anything, it made him feel worse.

* * *

Minato stood on Gamabunta's head, staring at the fox who destroyed his happiness. He sighed. "You ready Gamabunta?"

The large toad snorted humorlessly. _**"Nobody is ever ready to face that one, but I'll buy you as much time as I can."**_

"Thanks. Tell Jiraya to get you a large bottle of sake, my treat." Minato stated.

The toad nodded. _**"Well then, LET'S GO!"**_

With that, the toad charged the possibly most dangerous beast on the planet, using his sword to deflect a tail. His entire tactic was based on 'hop around, slash it when you see an opening, don't get hit'. So far, it was working. Minato had already drawn the seals on his daughter's stomach, and was flashing trough the last handsigns as Gamabunta took a hit, not enough to dispel him, but it would leave a scar over his eye. _**"Hurry! I can't keep her busy much longer!"**_ The toad called.

But Minato had already finished, the Shinigami was floating behind him. He looked at the fox and calmly spoke the words that would end his life. "_Shiki Fuin!_"

He felt like his chest was encased in ice as the Shinigami's arm shot out of his stomach, grabbing the Kyuubi desperately struggling while Gamabunta kept it from escaping before disappearing with a poof, and somehow transforming it into red mist that it placed in Natsuki's stomach. The seal Minato had inscribed glowed, before fading away. It was over.

Minato slowly turned around and looked at the Shinigami, who was also looking down to him _**"Are you prepared?"**_ the deity asked.

Minato opened his mouth. "I..." Images began to flash before his eyes. His village. His wife. His son. His daughter.

"I..." The images changed. He saw his hopes for the future. First he saw his village, glistering proudly in the sunlight. He saw Kushina smiling at him in front of their compound. He saw his children growing up, first as children, then young teens. He saw himself and Kushina giving them advice on the shinobi-life. He saw them, now older, at their weddings. He saw himself hand the Hokage-hat to his children. He saw his grandchildren sit on his lap while he told stories of long-past wars. He finally saw himself, now as old as Sarutobi, laying in a bed, surrounded by his precious people, peacefully closing his eyes.

"I..." Unlike many shinobi, Minato's ideal death had never been to die in a brilliant display, fighting a equal if not superior foe like the Shodaime, or facing unbeatable odds to buy his comrades time like the Nidaime. He wouldn't mind going that way, mind you, but his dream had always been to die peacefully of old age with a smile, surrounded by his loved ones.

It wasn't fair. To have everything stolen from him, just when life had finally started to look up. He could stay tough, but facing a god, Minato, knowing it would make no difference, chose honesty.

"I... I'm not ready." This statement, while seemingly so easy to make, was the hardest thing Minato had ever done, including choosing to use his children. He gave up his ego, his pride, his image as the fearless, confident leader and revealed his true self. A man who was afraid to die with so much left undone.

Where was his courage? His resolve to offer his life as the Hokage? The iron will and passionate love for his village that made him running into more than one hopeless situation with guaranteed death? Where was that passion that had driven him in the library to search for a solution, no matter the cost to himself? Gone. Vanished under the cold gaze of a god that stripped all falseness, that could not be deceived.

The Shinigami looked at him, his inhuman face betraying no emotion. Then... _**"Very well."**_

Minato blinked. It couldn't really be that easy, could it? "What?"

The deity looked at him. _**"I am death. Everything dies. It makes no difference if I take you now or in a hundred years. Eventually, you will die, and as our pact, your soul will be mine. I am patient. I can wait."**_ With that, he vanished, leaving a baffled, slack-jawed Minato behind.

Minato then looked at his daughter, and smiled. The Shinigami would eventually get his soul. And? He didn't care. He was given a chance to watch his children grow up, that was all he needed. He picked up Natsuki and headed towards the hospital. He would take care of the villagers in a minute, right now, he headed for his family.

* * *

The reunion had been shocking and heartwarming, lasting nearly an hour before Minato decided he couldn't leave his villagers in the dark any longer. He took his daughter in his arms and smiled. She looked exactly like her mother, with the exception of the six whisker-marks on her cheeks. Naruto on the other hand was clearly his clone, or rather his reflection in the fountain of youth.

He stood on the tower, looking down on the masses gathering below, cheering for his victory. He smiled. "People of Konoha, we have won! Thanks to our many brave shinobi, I have managed to find a way to defeat the Kyuubi! It will no longer be a scourge on these lands!"

The roars were deafening. Minato raised his voice. "But not I alone am the true hero. The heroes are all those who bravely faced the Kyuubi!" Roaring approval. Then Minato spoke again. "Nor am I the savior of Konoha. The true savior is right here!"

He lifted Natsuki up, so that everyone could see her. "The Kyuubi was so powerful because it is immortal, and nothing can kill it. However, this girl is keeping it locked away where it can never cause harm again! She is the jailer for the most powerful bijuu, and she will make sure that we can live without fear! I present you the Savior of Konoha, my daughter Natsuki Uzumaki-Namikaze!"

There was a moment of silence, then the applause and cheering rose to new highs. Their beloved leader, the Yondaime had stated that the girl, his daughter no less, was a hero who kept Kyuubi imprisoned forever, so it had to be true. The few yelling something about killing were swiftly pulled into dark corners, where the truth was beaten into their heads.

Minato felt wonderful. His family was complete, he was alive and his daughter was seen as the hero that she was. And for a moment he had been worried that they would be unable to tell the difference between the jailer and the prisoner. He should never have doubted his people. And even though revealing both his marriage and status as a parent may be slightly risky, Minato was not worried.

He had stared both Kyuubi and the Shinigami himself in the face and had somehow managed to make it out. What human did he have to fear? Iwa and Kumo would be too worried that if they attacked the children, their parents would retaliate and bring repeats of the humiliating defeats the war had brought them and their countries. In fact, it was more likely that new alliances would sprout like mushrooms. He would have to deflect the proposals to his children, but somehow, that didn't really seem all that threatening compared to what he had been through. No, the future of his family was very bright.

It's fascinating how a man can at the same time be so right and yet so wrong.

* * *

Chapter 1 is complete. The idea just came to me, and I had to write it down. This is just the prologue, it will probably take a few chapters until the story really kicks off, please bear with me.

In the fics I read so far, it either happens that Minato somehow alters the seal or uses a different one so that he can live, or he is just left alive without any real explanation. I decided that I needed a better excuse. Then I thought 'The Shinigami is essentially death, and death doesn't mind if you escape it once or twice. Death has all the time in the world, and eventually you will die. So no reason to hurry.' You may not deny the Shinigami his reward, but asking for more time is no problem. The only reason nobody found that out earlier was because they either went silently, or screamed stuff like 'No, don't take me!' He marks his victims, and those that would die anyways he takes immediately. The others he may spare, but they can never call upon him for anything again. If they do, the Shinigami assumes that they are now ready and takes their souls, without doing what he was summoned for. The offer is good one time only, why should he do something if he the payment is something he already owns from a previous job.

The first few chapters are kind of a slow buildup, so patience please. And the pairings, if there will be any, are undecided.

Another warning. Naruto will be darker, more cunning, more cruel to some, and extremely strong, occasionally stepping past the border of god-like. Don't like it, don't read.

I should be focusing on existing stories, but the urge to write this was stronger than me. School starts again next week, so my writing will be cut short. Updates for any of my stories will be whenever I find time to write one, I can't promise anything.

Well, that's all so far,

Please Review


	2. Prologue: Early Childhood

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

* * *

Kushina looked at the two babies that were peacefully sleeping, finally. They were incredibly tiring, as much as she loved those two, Her husband was currently busy organizing the rebuilding of Konoha, so looking after the kids fell completely to her.

She was thanking god that at least Naruto was a quiet child who only cried when he really needed something, as Natsuki was a bundle of energy that couldn't be let unsupervised for even a single second. She permanently crawled around, never remaining in the same spot, and she cried more often in ten minutes than Naruto did in a normal week. Kushina suspected the Kyuubi was at least partially responsible for the exhausting amounts of energy Natsuki possessed.

Still, her life was going well. She had survived giving birth, her husband had survived something nobody was supposed to survive, and their children were healthy. What more could a mother ask for? Well, maybe that he children got along a little better. They were eight months old, and seemed to get along fairly well, although Natsuki was clearly the more dominant one of the two, except for the odd night. It had happened twice so far that she had woken up to Naruto's whimpering, only to find that the only thing out of the ordinary was that Natsuki was clutching onto him. She had thought it cute, but Naruto seemed really uncomfortable. Maybe Natsuki was grabbing too hard?

* * *

Naruto was just over 4 years old when he first understood that there was a difference between him and his sister. Of course there were differences, he was a boy and she was a girl, they had different likes and dislikes, liked to play with different toys, stuff like that. But while Natsuki had never been sick a day in her life, his health was a bit more frail, and beside getting sick from time to time Naruto had noticed that three to four times he woke up feeling absolutely miserable without knowing why, in the last year. It usually only lasted a few days, but it was still odd.

Their father had of course explained that Natsuki had the mighty Kyuubi sealed inside of her, and that it gave her increased healing and better health. That made it all the more puzzling for Naruto why Natsuki screamed as if tortured whenever she scraped her knee. Naruto usually tried not to cry when it happened to him, and just went to his parents, most of the time mommy, something she seemed happy about, since she always called him a 'big boy'.

But only now, that they had left the compound together as a family for the first time did Naruto really understand that there was a large difference between him an his sister. Now that Naruto thought about it, as long as he could remember, he and Natsuki had never been out of the compound at the same time, so when he had been outside before, people had smiled at him, and he had thought they'd do the same for his sister, and he was right. What he didn't expect was that they completely overlooked him while his sister was there.

Nobody seemed to notice he existed anymore, as everyone rushed to get a look at his sister. Naruto didn't really mind not been gawked at by strangers, and actually had a bit of sympathy for his sister that was caught in the center of this human maelstrom, until someone, in his hurry to get a look at 'the Savior of Konoha' ran into him, actually sending him flying with a surprised shout. The muddy ground prevented any serious injuries, but his formerly orange yukata now had large patches of brown. He sniffed. He had liked that yukata.

Minato noticed that the tug on his leg had vanished, and looked down, only to find that Naruto was not there, but a good four feet away, rubbing his head while unhappily looking at his ruined yukata. He saw the man that had run him down, his shinobi-instincts having ensured that he recalled the face of a man who had rushed by him a little too close. He spotted said civilian merchant, elbowing his way through the crowd, and pulled him back by the collar.

"Hey, what's the big...? Oh, Hokage-sama, what can I do for you?" The merchant had turned ashen when he realized he'd shouted at the leader of his village.

Minato was annoyed. "Well for one thing, you can apologize for knocking my son into the dirt and pay for the cleaning of his yukata."

The merchant's eyes darted around until he saw Naruto, covered in dirt. Lord in heaven, he had ran the son of the Yondaime over! He wouldn't be able to sell a thing for the next week! "I'm sorry, I was elsewhere with my thoughts. Of course I will take responsibility for this, the cleaning is on me. If there is anything else I can do..."

Minato gave him a cold look, and the merchant shrank away. "You will get the bill in the next days. And that was an expensive yukata, if the stains don't go out, you're replacing it."

Of course the talk between the Hokage and the merchant had attracted attention, and Kushina and Natsuki now noticed Naruto was still sitting in the dirt. Natsuki blinked, pointed at her brother, and laughed. It wasn't really any bad intention, he just looked so funny.

Naruto stared at his sister, then at his own clothing, and even though he didn't think it was that funny, he had to laugh too. Kushina shook her head, shooed her children back to the compound to get changed while Minato headed to a bakery to get something sweet that his family could eat together, to cheer up his son after that unfortunate event.

* * *

A few months later, the family sat together at dinner. Kushina cooked the family's favorite meal, ramen. Natsuki gobbled down the ramen faster than one could blink, while Minato and Kushina, while eating more civilized, were only slightly slower in their decimation of the meal. Only Naruto ate slower, savoring each bite before swallowing it. That was also the reason he had just finished his first bowl, while all others were at least on bowl four.

"Mom, can I please have a..." Naruto started, only to be interrupted by Natsuki.

"MOM, REFILL!" She shouted happily.

Kushina sighed. "Young lady, how many times do I have to tell you not to shout?" Still, she took the pot and poured more into Natsuki's bowl, before looking into the pot with a frown on her face. "Well, that was the last of it."

Naruto blinked. It wasn't fair! He loved ramen just as much as anybody else in his family did! Natsuki was eating her undeserved ninth filling, he had just finished his first, and _she_ got the last bowl?! Whenever Naruto interrupted somebody, his mother told him that that was rude, why was it okay for his sister?

Naruto calmed himself. It was to be expected. Naruto was unusually smart for his age, and he had already noticed that his parents seemed to love Natsuki a little more than they loved him. He wasn't beaten or hated, it was just subtle things that gave it away. They just always cared a little more for Natsuki than for him. He knew that parents sometimes had favorites amongst their children, and that Natsuki was important because she carried the Kyuubi, but couldn't at least one of his parents love him more?

Kushina looked at him. "What were you saying, Naruto?"

Naruto blinked. "Nothing." He stood up, pushed his chair in, placed his bowl in the sink, and left.

Kushina looked at Minato, who gave her a helpless shrug. Natsuki was busy with her bowl, ignorant to the rest of the world.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes, and immediately felt miserable. The glance down was just a formality for him to know that Natsuki had sneaked into his bed during the storm last night. So he probably had a few hours before it got really bad.

Then he noticed the door to his room was open, and his parents were looking at them, doubtlessly finding it incredibly cute.

Fortunately Natsuki woke up, saw her parents, and rushed out of the room. Naruto looked at his mother. "Mom, can't you tell her to stop it?"

His mother blinked. "Why? It's cute, and I like seeing that my children care for each other this much. Most children climb into their parents' bed when they're scared, not their brother's. I'm almost jealous. "

Naruto grimaced. "You shouldn't be mom, it hurts. Every time she sleeps here, I wake up feeling awful."

Kushina frowned. He always said that, and there was nothing wrong with him. She had even gone to a doctor the first times he claimed it hurt, and the man had told her that nothing was wrong, aside from a cold. "You know, I can understand that you think it makes you look less manly sleeping with your sister, but that's no reason to make up stories. As punishment for telling lies, you'll weed the garden." She knew it wasn't that much of a punishment, as Naruto enjoyed working in the garden.

Naruto opened his mouth in protest. "But mom..."

Kushina stopped him before he could say more. "Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, I suggest you be quiet before you make your punishment worse than it has to be."

Naruto closed his mouth, got dressed and marched towards the garden, past a smug-looking Natsuki.

The storm had not completely passed, and Naruto spent the last quarter of his time in the garden soaking in icy-cold rain, determined to finish the task, no matter how unfair it was to be punished for telling the truth.

He spent the next days in bed with a high fever.

* * *

It was Naruto's and Natsuki's fifth birthday. Normally they visited all the different clans that day, spending time and getting presents with each one before moving on, taking the children and those adults who wanted with them until they finally reached the festival that was held annually to celebrate the defeat of Kyuubi. At midnight they launched fireworks that lasted over an hour, with all children being excused from school the next day so that they could watch them. But because Naruto had just recovered from a heavy fever, Kushina and Minato decided that it might be better if they asked the guests to come to their house instead, so that Naruto would only travel to the festival and back, to not completely exhaust himself.

Naruto smiled happily as he took congratulations from all sides, and even got to cut the cake. He gave his sister an extra-large piece with three strawberries on top, as it was her favorite kind of cake, although the congratulating masses didn't leave any time for the twins to actually exchange words.

Naruto opened his pile of presents, being happy for each one and not at all jealous of his sister. He knew that his sister would get more presents than him, as everyone in the village seemed to want to send her a present. He was happy with what he got. From his father a blunt set of kunai and shuriken next to a big bag of sweets, while his mother gave him a shiny wooden sword for training, as they would start with shinobi-training after their birthday, which really was the biggest present he could ask for, well, aside from the free-meal-coupon Ichiraku's ramen had sent him. Natsuki got the same gifts, plus a few more, and was loudly cheering in happiness.

After the gifting and the meal, it was decided that Minato would activate the security-seals to keep uninvited guests out and over-enthusiastic kids in, before the two age-groups separated. The adults stayed in the house, talking boring grown-up talks, while the children got to play in the yard and training-grounds, after they had made sure there were no forgotten pointy things laying around. It was a warm, sunny day, so the children were only too happy to oblige.

After the adults had left, Natsuki suddenly clapped her hands, pulling the attention to her. "I just wanted to say something. Thanks for coming!" The children cheered, but Natsuki wasn't done. "Wait, wait. The second thing is, because Naru-nii said something mean about me, I'm not going to play with anyone who plays with him!"

Silence reigned after that declaration. The children looked at each other. Natsuki was definitely the more fun one of the two, always cheery and filled with energy, unlike her rather quiet brother, so the decision with whom of the two they wanted to play was an easy one. Also, most of their parents had told them how important Natsuki was and that being friends with her was a good thing. Slowly, all the children headed over to Natsuki, some having the decency to give him apologetic looks, although the general opinion was that Naruto deserved what he got if he was being mean, leaving Naruto standing alone, gaping like a fish. He could not believe his sister had just done that. He knew she wasn't happy that he said that her crawling into his bed hurt him, but it was true!

The next two three hours, Naruto made multiple attempts to play with the other kids, but they sent him away. He tried to talk to Natsuki, but his sister ignored him completely. Eventually, Naruto just gave up, sitting alone in front of the small, shallow pond on the grounds, flipping rocks over its surface.

When the parents came to take their kids to the festival, Naruto said he was tired and didn't want to go. His parents assumed that it was because of his fever and allowed him to go to bed, leaving him some medicine and tea he later poured down the drain, while the rest of the children headed off to the festival, Natsuki being the only one who felt a slight twinge of guilt from her brother's absence, before the festival washed those thoughts away.

She spent the evening at different stalls playing games and winning toys with her friends, falling asleep at the end of the fireworks and being carried home. Naruto had long since cried himself to sleep at that point.

* * *

A few weeks later, Naruto was sitting in the living room, drawing a picture. He wasn't really good at it, but he had decided to just try it, with his parents gone and Natsuki being nowhere to be found he didn't have anything better to do, and discovered he liked drawing just as much as gardening. His first picture was simple, it was a picture of his family. Him to the very right, holding his father's hand, who was holding mom in his other hand, who in turn was holding Natsuki's hand. He had worked on it for the last two hours, and it was finally done. The resemblance was very crude, but it was there, and Naruto was proud that he had also thought of drawing grass, the sky, and a house looking like their home, only without the surrounding wall. He was about to put the drawing-stuff away, when he heard a hissing.

He left the house to investigate, and found that a cat had apparently sneaked in. it was a tiger-striped cat with a ribbon on one ear. Naruto tilted his head. "Come on kitty, I'm not gonna hurt you. You're not supposed to be here, I'll show you the way out."

The cat hissed at him, but it followed, ready to pounce or flee at the slightest indication of deceit. Naruto however simply opened the small hatch that could be used to look at whose at the door before actually opening it. It had seals on it that prevented anything from going into the property, but it didn't have anything preventing going out of the property, as long as it fitted. The cat jumped on his back when he leaned forward, then on his shoulder before jumping through the hatch and out of the compound it had been unable to leave.

Naruto on the other hand heard his parents' voices and realized they must have come back while he had been busy with the cat.

When he came in, his father smiled at him. "Ah Naruto, nice to see you. How was your day?"

Naruto smiled shyly. Because of Minato's duties as Hokage, he didn't get to spend as much time with his family as he would have liked, so Naruto always seemed a bit unsure about him. "I'm fine."

Then his mother showed up, smiling. "Naruto, Natsuki drew a great picture."

Naruto blinked. She too? Well, that would explain why Naruto hadn't found her. "Really?"

Kushina nodded. "Here it is." She showed it.

Minato smiled. "That's impressive. It really looks just like us."

Naruto's jaw had dropped. That was his picture! The one he had spent the whole day drawing! Natsuki had taken it while Naruto was busy with the cat, and in her shaky writing, had named it hers, writing ME in the uncolored spot Naruto had left above her head. Kushina was titled MOM, Minato with DAD, while she had written NARU-NII above his image. "I made that!"

Kushina's smile faded. "Naruto, I told you before that it's not nice to lie."

"But I'm not lying!" Naruto defended himself.

Kushina gave him a stern look. "Naruto, I saw Natsuki finishing the picture. If it was yours, where were you?"

Naruto tried to explain. "There was a cat in the yard, so I..."

Minato joined the conversation. "So you were playing outside with a cat. That's fine, so why do you insist on claiming your sister's work? If you're jealous, just draw something yourself. What you're doing can be called stealing, and you know our opinion on that."

Naruto tried not to look too upset. "But, that's not how it..."

Kushina sighed. "Naruto, stop making excuses and just apologize for lying."

"But I wasn't!" Naruto started.

Kushina gave him a stern look. "Naruto, go to your room. You won't be coming to Ichiraku's with us today. I didn't want to do this, but you brought this over yourself. It will give you time to think about if the punishment is worth telling us obvious lies."

Naruto blinked. Why was he being punished? He was telling the truth! Natsuki stole his picture, lied to mom and dad, and as a reward, she gets to go to Ichiraku's while he had to stay in his room? That was like a thief stealing a painting, and being given the insurance-money of the painting as a reward. He ran up to his room, slamming all doors that he could, sliding or solid. On the way up the stairs, he looked back one last time, and saw Natsuki stretching her tongue out to him.

That was the first time Naruto truly hated his sister.

* * *

Chapter 2 is done.

Not that much happened, some the action will start next chapter, including Naruto's talent, where he is superior, where Natsuki beats him, and some original jutsu, made by Naruto. It's taking me a while because I'm trying to not do this Naruto's-parents-ignore-Naruto-for-his-famous-sister-thing, it's been done too often already, and I don't think it's plausible. Minato is the Hokage, and Kushina is, in this fic, another S-ranked shinobi. Both are too used to glory to completely abandon one child for the other.

What I'm trying to do is make it subtle. It starts with little things, only small shows of favor that aren't even consciously done by the parents, but Naruto notices. So here he quickly realizes that his parents seem to love Natsuki a bit more than they love him, and becomes a more quiet child. With Natsuki showing, well, canon-Naruto behavior when with adults, she's simply the one that gets more attention and needs to be watched closer. Naruto isn't hated, he just slowly fades into the background.

And Natsuki, despite what this and the next chapters show, is not evil per say, she's just spoiled and selfish. It will change eventually, and it's not really her fault with the way she gets attention and adoration from everyone without really doing anything, but for now, she will be mean to her brother, starting next chapter because she's a bit jealous of his talents in certain fields. She was raised with the worship of the village, so she feels it's only right for her to be the best in everything. So add 'sore loser' to her list of personal problems.

And before anyone says 'Natsuki's actions seem a bit cruel for someone her age', I will say this: It is because she is that age that she shows this cruelty. Older teenagers and adults know that being too obvious when bullying someone is not good and leads to trouble, children are like that. Adults mainly use what I like to call _subtle cruelty_, meaning they, without being really insulting or doing too obvious moves, just let the person feel it is not welcome. Children don't work that way. They are ruthlessly honest. If they hate you, they will tell you that they hate you, they will kick you in the shin and do other mean stuff the average adult wouldn't even consider doing. And Natsuki knows that she has the other kids on her side, who would also deny everything if Naruto tattles to avoid getting in trouble. She won't be mean all the time, especially not while adults can see her, but for a while, she will be unbearable from Naruto's point of view.

Well, not much else to say right now, so

Please Review


	3. Prologue: First Training and an Attack

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

* * *

Naruto grunted as he was slammed against the ground. He quickly pushed himself on all fours and kicked his left leg behind him. A huff told him he hit the target. He jumped to his feet, but his attacker had already recovered. Naruto blocked five punches and sent three back, before a knee to the gut forced him on his knees.

"That's enough, both of you." Minato's voice rang out. Natsuki jumped back, while Naruto struggled a bit before getting up.

"Good job you two. Especially you, Natsuki. I'm surprised, most girls are weaker than boys."

Natsuki puffed her chest, while Naruto growled. "Well most girls don't have a demon in them that make them stronger."

Minato gave him a look. "Naruto..."

"What? It's true, the blond lady with the diamond on her forehead said so herself, remember?"

Minato couldn't argue with that. He had asked if Tsunade could come over and check the children, to make sure there were no complications that could interfere with the beginning of their shinobi-training. There had been nothing, a few unusual spots in Naruto, but nothing really troubling. However, Tsunade had discovered that the Kyuubi's chakra, minuscule amounts of it seeping into Natsuki, was strengthening her bones and muscles, making her stronger and tougher than the average boy her age. She had said that while Naruto and Natsuki had been present, although honestly speaking only Naruto had paid attention to her.

"Yes, it's true, but that doesn't mean you should rub it in." Minato admitted.

Naruto nodded. "Yes, it does, otherwise she'll treat it like a personal accomplishment. Dad, be honest. If Natsuki was a normal girl, heck, if she was a normal boy, who would have won?"

Minato sighed. "You Naruto, and don't swear. Natsuki, your brother has a point. In the entire spar, you never once dodged or blocked a single attack, you just took them and kept on striking, quickly forcing Naruto, who did dodge _and_ block, into the defensive."

Natsuki blinked. "So? It didn't hurt and I still won."

Minato looked at her. "That's true, but this was a bare-handed spar. In real combat against experienced enemies, you'll almost always be fighting someone with a weapon, if only a kunai. And if you fight them the way you fought your brother, you'll be cut to ribbons before you can inflict any damage. Even the Kyuubi can't heal you if you have a a knife in your chest or lost your head. Your strategy is just dashing out hits and relying on the fox to fix anything that happens to you. While that is okay now, it has to change. Your mother says that in sword-training, Naruto beats you every time."

Natsuki was insulted. "Only because mom always calls the matches before anything happens."

Minato frowned. "No, she calls the matches when one side gets a hit that would either cripple or kill them if you were using real swords. Naruto just uses openings to hit those places."

Natsuki shook her head. "Nuh-uh, she called matches when Naruto hit my shin or arms."

Minato looked at her. "Well you can't fight without arms and feet, can you?"

Natsuki pouted, before finally admitting "No."

Minato ruffled her hair. "See, was that so hard?" Natsuki's face clearly stated YES, but Minato didn't notice. "Now, let's move on to jutsu-practice."

Natsuki's face brightened, while Naruto grimaced. Natsuki loved learning and using new jutsu, which she did incredibly fast, while Naruto always took longer. The secret of Natsuki's success of course once again lay in the fact that simply because the Kyuubi was sealed inside of her, Natsuki had unnaturally large chakra-reserves. She could go on when Naruto had to take breaks, and more importantly, she could afford to use five times the chakra needed to get the jutsu to work, while Naruto had to work on his control to get it to work. Of course, that also meant that Naruto could stand and carefully move on liquid surfaces by now, while Natsuki was incapable of merely walking up a tree.

While Natsuki was upset when she saw her brother walk over water or just walk up vertical surfaces to avoid her, she saw no need to better her control, as she had no problems doing the jutsu they were taught. Any attempts of Naruto to state otherwise were perceived as bullying, and his parents didn't take his side in those arguments either, going with the old line _'Any problem that I can safely ignore is not a problem'_, meaning that as long as Natsuki could do the jutsu, they were happy. To their parents' defense, he and his sister were five, but Naruto still couldn't see what was wrong at pointing out a problem before it became a habit and even harder to correct.

What Naruto loved were genjutsu. He discovered that with his good control, which he regularly practiced, and his very creative mind, they just came naturally to him. Kushina had taught them the basics, but with Natsuki unable to dispel even the most basic ones and endlessly complaining, she had, much to Naruto's chagrin, decided to drop genjutsu until they were a bit older and, in Natsuki's case, more mature.

Naruto had been upset with the sudden loss of his passion as a lesson, and wandered the village for a few hours. By coincident, he had met a member of the Kurama-clan, who were known for their skills with genjutsu, and asked him for pointers. He had to invite the older boy to dango, something his savings still hadn't completely recovered from, but he had gotten his tip. In fact, that tip would be one of the biggest impacts in young Naruto's life.

* * *

"Genjutsu" the Kurama had said "is different from any other jutsu, no matter if taijutsu, ninjutsu, kenjutsu or fuinjutsu. You see, with all of those, you can easily learn from a master, and with talent, you may even surpass him using what he taught you. You may become a taijutsu-master using only taijutsu you were taught by others, just as you can easily become a ninjutsu-master using only jutsu that others created, as long as you have sufficient chakra, talent, affinity, and of course determination. Genjutsu however is fundamentally different. No matter how hard you work or how talented you are, you will never surpass your master using what he has taught you."

Naruto had looked at him. "Why not?"

The man had smiled. "Simple. Genjutsu is a jutsu that relies on one's imagination to work. The handsigns are something used by beginners to upper mid-class, and they only serve the purpose of helping you focus. But those handsigns are something you use, they are unique to you. While a person who knows what the genjutsu is supposed to do can cast them with the handsigns, they in fact reduce the power of the genjutsu, as they distract from the true source, your imagination. True masters can cast a genjutsu with a single finger, a sound, a gesture, or even without any indication. Basically the genjutsu that work best for you, that are the most impressive and the hardest to break, are those that you yourself created. To put it bluntly, a beginner who designed his own jutsu may, and has, cast a better genjutsu than a master who uses something made by another. If you really want success with genjutsu, don't ask for handsigns or how to do the jutsu, ask for what it does and then work until you made one that does it. It requires more work, but the results are well worth the effort."

Naruto blinked. This went against almost everything his mother had told him. "But, aren't handsigns vital because they control the flow of chakra? So a genjutsu shouldn't work without precise chakra-work, right?"

The Kurama had laughed. "Indeed, and that is why those who work in the art of genjutsu need very good chakra-control. The handsigns are only needed if your control is not good enough to move the chakra on your own. That's also why people with miserable control are unable to break genjutsu on their own; they have to disrupt their flow of chakra, although the higher-level genjutsu can resist that, and those people don't have enough control to cause such a disruption within themselves. And you don't need handsigns, any focus will do. In fact, we have a girl in our clan, the most talented one we've seen in a very long time, and she uses pictures she draws as a focus instead of handsigns. Initially you may need a focus, but what that focus is really doesn't matter in genjutsu. For ninjutsu, it is important, because the handsigns are also connected with certain elements of nature and help you tune in better, but that's a different story."

* * *

So Naruto had started working on creating his own genjutsu, testing them on animals and the harmless ones on random pedestrians. He had also started drawing again, although after Natsuki again took one of his pictures, a rough sketch of Konoha, while he wasn't looking and claimed it was hers, he had started to burn them as soon they were finished.

There was another thing that fascinated Naruto, although that was even more difficult to learn. While alone in the house, Naruto had walked into his father's library. While Minato had installed seals that ensured nobody he didn't authorize could pull a scroll out of the drawer and that nobody could remove a scroll from the library, he also had the bad habit of leaving things laying around. Naruto discovered that seals, while immensely complex, were actually fairly simple in concept. There were certain rules and guidelines for seal-work, which could be bended to a certain degree but not broken without dire consequences, and as long as you followed these, you actually had a lot of freedom in what you do. Of course Naruto would need a deep understanding of seals before he could do anything that was even a fiftieth as complicated as his father's _Hiraishin_, but the most basic things Naruto quickly learned to do, the entire concept of sealing somehow making complete sense to him.

All in all, Naruto was by far superior in genjutsu, fuinjutsu and chakra-control to Natsuki, while having a slight edge over her in kenjutsu, due to the fact that he actually dodged and blocked. She was better in taijutsu, although simply stronger and faster would be more accurate, and also superior in ninjutsu, thanks to Kyuubi's increased reserves. Her problems with control were avoided, and when it became clear that the way things were going, Natsuki would never be able to use a _Bunshin_, they decided to teach her the _Kage Bunshin_, a jutsu perfect for people with high chakra and demons stopping information overload. Natsuki had taken to it like a fish to water, while Naruto had nearly killed himself when in a fit of jealousy, he had tried the jutsu in his room, managing three clones, which dispelled themselves to give Naruto back his chakra, as voluntary dispelled clones return everything excluding exhaustion to their creators. Naruto had learned his limit and the _Kage Bunshin_'s secret there and then, and never created more than two clones tops, usually one, who then trained chakra-control or read available scrolls and books while he focused on genjutsu, fuinjutsu and physical fitness, in that order.

Naruto had actually taken the _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_ apart, figured out what gave them their independent minds and abilities to send information, and combined the sentient mind with a type of _Bunshin_ that had no physical body but didn't dispel when hit, creating a new jutsu with drastically reduced chakra-costs. His _Genzou Bunshin_ had the cost of a low D-ranked jutsu and took no more control than one needed to stick to a wall, yet nobody took him seriously when he presented it. They explained that it wouldn't do any good against an experienced shinobi, despite the fact that Naruto explained he had intended it to be for shinobi beginning their career, to which it would have been a very useful jutsu, since the clones were transparent to the caster, an unintended side-effect. Naruto had even created another jutsu based on his first one, a C-ranked jutsu requiring a water-walking level of control, the _Genzou Bunshin no Yoroi_, but the only thing that Naruto got when he tried to present his work was the order to not use ninjutsu in a taijutsu-match, although his father seemed happy that Naruto had started crafting jutsu, even if they currently were useless ones in his opinion.

Natsuki spent most of the time she didn't train with her many friends, while Naruto, who after that story Natsuki had told on their birthday had become something of an outcast in his age-group, something that Natsuki had started to actively encourage, spent most of his free time either perfecting his chakra-control, coming up with seals, or working on genjutsu. While the simple ones Naruto could quickly recreate, he was working on one that would be much more complex. What he didn't know was how soon he would need it.

* * *

It was a cold day in February, Naruto and Natsuki were now six and a certain rhythm had settled in their lives. On weekdays they would get up, get dressed, brush their teeth, and begin their exercises before they were tutored by their mother. After lunch at 1:00 PM they had free time until 7:00 PM, when dinner was served. Then their father would be home and they would go through 1½ more hours of training before the day was done and the siblings would wash, spend time with the family and go to bed. On weekends they had free and could decide whether they wanted to train, study, play, or just hang around. Minato worked Saturdays and parts of Sunday, while Kushina spent every second weekend with friends, leaving the children unsupervised.

On one particular Saturday, Naruto and Natsuki were alone in the house, having just returned from shopping, Kushina going back because she had forgot to buy an important dinner-ingredient, when it happened.

Naruto and Natsuki were in the kitchen, unpacking the shopping-bags, when they heard a swooshing sound. Both spending enough time throwing kunai to recognize the sound of one cutting through the air, they both jumped off the chairs they had used to reach the higher drawers. Two kunai embedded themselves in the wall were their necks had been only seconds before. They turned around, only to see a man wearing a headband with rocks carved into it. Natsuki summoned a small army of clones, confident that would be enough, only to stare in shock as the man made short work of them. That shock cost her, as she froze, and only Naruto pulling on her arm to get her to run turned the third thrown kunai into a grazing shot instead of a kill.

Naruto knew they only had as long as it would take the man to destroy the rest of the clones, which would probably be in roughly twenty seconds if the regular poofs sounding out of the kitchen were any indication. A nice part of the _kage bunshin_ was that the clones, knowing what they were, were a lot braver than the originals and had no problem starting kamikaze-attacks, which bought them a little time. Naruto's goal was to reach the front-door, then the gate, and then they would almost be out of the woods, as there was always some shinobi on the road, usually more than one, and every chunin knew jutsu that served to call for backup.

He actually managed to leave the house before the Iwa-nin caught up with them. Natsuki, who had been little more than dead weight the entire escape, cried out in pain when a shuriken sank into her calf. She noticed that her surroundings were getting blurry. She wondered if she was poisoned.

Naruto knew there was no way he'd make it, even if he left his sister behind. He formed a few handsigns and prayed to every deity that might be listening for this to work. Then he saw that the Iwa-nin had drawn a tanto and was swinging it down. Naruto's eyes widened in horror. He knew he wouldn't be able to dodge in time.

* * *

Jin Nadare, jonin of Iwa and former member of its hunter-nin, saw the boy beginning handsigns, and decided that whatever he was planning, he was not going to finish it. He drew his tanto and swung it downward.

It cut through flesh and bone, leaving a deep diagonal gash from left collarbone to right hip. The boy didn't look like he was in pain, it was more disbelieving shock. Even though Jin hated the Yondaime with a passion, the man killing his father, mother and three older siblings, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of pity for this kid, who probably couldn't understand what was happening.

"Nothing personal, kid. This aims for your father. The pain will end in a second." With that, he slashed the boy's throat, the blond kid collapsing in a gurgling heap. The girl had tried to open the gate, but Jin's tanto pierced her heart before she managed to pull it open. Jin removed the blade and, just to be sure, slashed her head off with a single strike. He was blown back by a chakra-wave that burned on the skin, but apart from that he was fine. He opened the gate and began to run, knowing he had only seconds until the burst of chakra would alarm somebody.

Getting out of Konoha was fairly easy, as the commotion had left every shinobi on duty confused. However, ten minutes into his escape, he realized that he had pursuers. They had come faster than he would have liked, but realistically speaking, he had more head-start than he himself had expected, and he had prepared traps the entire route back to Iwa, ranging from exploding-tag-arrays to camouflaged seals that would fire poisoned senbon at those tracking him, not to mention a few safe hiding-places.

Maybe twenty minutes had past, and the Konoha-nin had been steadily gaining on him. By now, he could actually see flashes of them. There was no Hyuuga, which was a huge relief because it meant he could use twenty hiding-places that a Hyuuga would have immediately spotted him in. The Inuzua and Aburame were worrisome, and Jin had gained multiple cuts and grazes from projectiles aimed at him. He didn't give up though, because he knew they were nearing the first trap, a simple array of ten exploding-tags. It would be triggered in just a few...

BOOM!

Such a satisfying sound, especially when accompanied by the screams of the dying. Even Deidara would not have been able to beat that. While he wasn't stupid enough to go look what he hit, a rough headcount did show that only fifteen of the former forty-headed squad were still on his trail. While his route lead him towards Kusa, the traps slowly dwindled his pursuers numbers, although they had gotten more careful after that first explosion. When he put his biggest plan into motion, he had gained more ground, with maybe seven followers left. He reached the river and started to run over it, suddenly making an 80° turn to the right, jumping into a prepared hole in the muddy shore and closing it seconds before his pursuers reached the river and ran across. There was a short pause while the trackers searched for his sent, until they started running off in the opposite direction. Jin had walked that route a hundred times to make sure his scent was on the trail. It lead to a clearing, where a rain of poisoned senbon would go down on them. He had left a communicator there so he could hear when they reached the clearing, determined he would not crawl out until they had reached it. Then the relieving rustling of feet rang through his headset, and Jin bolted, running on the river for a few seconds before running towards Taki to reach Iwa. The hunt had gone on for two days now, and Jin was starting to use chakra-pills and concentrated caffeine-tablets to keep moving.

He listened to the voices in the communicator, smiling at what he heard. At first only angry calls, then surprised cries when the senbon fired. One particular piece of information made him grin and gulp at the same time.

"Kushina-sama! Damn it, she's down! Where are the medics?"

"They went down in that first explosion!"

"Damn it! You two, bring Kushina-sama to Tsunade-sama at once! You two, come with me. We're gonna get that motherfucking bastard for this! Inuzuka, do you still got his trail?"

"I think he tricked us. The tracks are not as fresh as they should be. He lost us at the river!"

Jin kicked into a higher gear. Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Death, Uzu's Crimson Whirlpool, had been hunting him? His escape was a miracle. However, she was hit by the senbon, and from the way it sounded, a lot of senbon, each of them dipped in a poison that killed in less than an hour. They would never make it back to Konoha in time.

Getting rid of the last three had been comparably simple. He had lead them into a trap that, while not fatal, covered them in a substance similar to fresh skunk-juice. They would never be able to track him now, meaning that with the last few traps and maneuvers to lose them, he was free as a bird.

He headed straight for Iwa, reaching it four days after he had left Konoha. His welcome was a national hero's. The Tsuchikage, a firm hater of Konoha, welcomed him in all honors. Shortly after, Iwa received the news that Kushina Uzumaki had passed away, and that the Yondaime had committed suicide after the loss of his entire family, and the ecstatic leader named Jin his successor. While beaming with pride, the greatest reward was the adoration of the female gender. After a hot night with three gorgeous women, Jin finally fell into well-deserved slumber.

* * *

Konoha was in an uproar. How had this happened? A assailant from Iwa had sneaked into the Namikaze-compound while the adults were absent and attacked the children.

* * *

_Namikaze Compound_

"How did he even get in?" A dog-masked ANBU asked while looking at the two unmoving bodies of the children. The bastard had got them good.

A tiger-masked rookie spoke up. "Hokage-sama suspected that he sneaked in when Kushina-sama left the compound to get the groceries she forgot. He immediately changed the seals, but the damage is done."

Inu nodded. "So, what happened to him?"

Tora shrugged, while the children started to stir. "A high-class genjutsu. Ibiki had a bit of trouble getting him out of it. He said the man actually fought to stay in it. Must have been some dream. Not that I blame him, I'd want to stay any place where I'm not Ibiki's new toy."

Kushina spoke up. "So who put him under it?"

Minato shrugged. "That's the big question, isn't it? The Kurama-clan stated that as much as they'd like to take credit, none of their members were outside of their compound at the time in question, and while we have some who are good in genjutsu, Itachi here being one of the first to come to mind, they all say they had nothing to do with it, nor do they have any idea of what was used. It was either forgotten, customized, or self-made."

Kushina's eyes wandered to Naruto and Natsuki. "You don't think one of them..."

Itachi seemed thoughtful. "It's possible, but if so, then we have a genjutsu-prodigy on our hands."

Inu seemed more hesitant. "I don't know. Of course geniuses like Itachi here exist, but they usually get noticed. A genjutsu-prodigy especially, as they have to try their jutsu out on people, in contrast to ninjutsu- or taijutsu-prodigies, who can train alone with nobody watching."

Itachi nodded. "True, genjutsu-users need to practice on others, but that doesn't necessarily mean they get noticed. If the jutsu is subtle enough, the person may not even know he's under a genjutsu. The attacker, who as the insignia of a jonin, would have been able to free himself from the genjutsu. The jutsu must have been so subtle he didn't notice he was put under it, working with his logic to make sure that he didn't realize he was caught, and pleasant enough for him not to try and dispel it out of sheer desperation. Also, some minor injuries must have been ingrained, as he has a few wounds that would have dispelled a genjutsu that shows the mind no reason to why there is an injury. The jutsu would have to be at least a B-rank, maybe A-rank to have all these effects."

Kushina shook her head. "But neither one received such training! I taught one really low-ranked genjutsu, then I had to stop because Natsuki was getting more and more upset because she couldn't do it. Naruto did learn it fairly quickly, but there are only few scrolls about genjutsu in the compound, and those are never pulled out. Neither Naruto nor Natsuki had any source on genjutsu, so it couldn't have been them."

Inu looked at Natsuki. "Do you think it could have been... the fox?"

Minato thought about it. "Well, kitsune are known as tricksters and masters of illusion. Of course, we never heard of Kyuubi having any genjutsu-skills, but it could be that the fox simply never found itself in a situation were it would need to use them. That seems to be the only explanation."

Itachi was not convinced. "Wouldn't that mean that there should be at least some traces? Youki-residue for one? There are sections in Konoha that we still can't even approach because the stuff still lingering in said sections is so dense and aggressive to living beings, like us. 5% of Konoha have been deemed uninhabitable after the attack, and they still are, after all these years! And you're telling me the fresher trails vanished in minutes?"

"Do you have a different explanation?" Kushina asked.

"None so far." Itachi admitted. "Still, I can't help but think that something we don't know happened here."

Minato shrugged. "And I agree. But if what you said is true, even the Iwa-nin won't be able to help us with that, as he would not know at which point his memories are a genjutsu."

* * *

Naruto was seething in anger. He had worked months on that one genjutsu, making sure it worked just the way he wanted to, so that he could finally show something unique to him that his parents could be proud of, and now that he had actually activated _Zekkou Sekai_, driving himself to chakra-exhaustion while doing so, his sister of all people got the credit! It was not fair! And of course Natsuki didn't deny anything, granted, she didn't know better. But now she walked around with her head even more bloated, actually threatening him to put him under her 'super-awesome genjutsu' if he didn't do what she wanted. Naruto had laughed her in the face, only to be punished when his sister started crying and telling Kushina he was making fun of her. Why did Natsuki get the credit for everything _he_ worked for all the time, while he was being called jealous whenever he tried to set things straight?!

Even worse, Natsuki had found out that their parents and the teachers in the ninja-academy they had recently started to visit didn't trust Naruto when his and her words stood against each other, especially if she had witnesses. So she had started to play pranks, and blamed him! And of course the other children took her side, claiming they saw Naruto do it. Some other pranksters like Kiba Inuzuka had started to do the same thing, meaning that Naruto was slowly gaining a reputation as a troublemaker, despite not doing anything wrong. It went so far that Naruto considered actually playing a prank on somebody, only so that their parents would, just for a change, yell at him for something he actually did. He was sick of hearing "Why can't you be more like your sister?", resulting in him once yelling back "Because I don't want to blame others for what I did or take credit for their actions!", which had resulted in a week of house-arrest. Really, life sucked.

What Naruto didn't know was that life was about to take another U-turn on his seventh birthday, and not for the better.

* * *

Chapter 3 is done. Took a little while, but it's done. Next chapter will be the accident, and then I'll probably work on other fics that I have neglected for a while. Still, I'm surprised I got this many reviews with only two chapters. I humbly thank my reviewers for their input.

In fact, it surprised me that a number of suggestions coming from the reviews were along the lines of what I had planned for the fic. Should I be flattered because of my highly intelligent readers, or should I worried that my plot is that easy to see through? Should I continue this story, or focus on other stories?

Anyways, coming to the content of the chapter. As you probably have found out by now, I intend to have the lion's share of Naruto's jutsu, well, of jutsu that he actually uses, to be designed by himself. He will be on or maybe even above Yakumo's level in genjutsu, and surpassing his father in fuinjutsu, although it might take a while until I boost his level to _that_ hight. He will be good in taijutsu, not as good as Lee, but he could wipe the floor with Kiba. He will use ninjutsu, but there he will use more already invented ones. You can say that Naruto will be proficient in all aspects, but he will excel with genjutsu and fuinjutsu, which will also be what he uses most.

As for his arm, that one will be a unique thing. The idea has as far as I read never been used before, and has absolutely nothing to do with DMC4 or Tales of Symphonia, neither of which I have never played, as I must admit. Originally I had not even planned for the arm to exist, but I wanted Naruto to have more than just genjutsu and fuinjutsu, and decided to use the crippling for that, which even allowed me to find an excuse for Naruto's later uber-skills in genjutsu, but enough of that.

As I wrote above, the accident will be next chapter. I will say this much, it is unintentionally caused by his parents.

Here are the jutsu I have invented for this chapter.

_Genzo Bunshin no Jutsu_ (Phantom Clone Technique)  
Rank: D  
Range: Short (0m-5m), Middle (5m-10m)  
Type: Support  
This jutsu was the first of many to be invented by Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. It is a combination of the traditional _Bunshin_ and different additions. They are sentient and not reliant on their creator to move. They do not send information once dispelled, as with the amount of clones that could be created, that ability would almost certainly cause information-overload. The clones have no solid form, however they will not dispel when hit. Instead, they will allow the hit to pass through them. The clones are transparent to the caster, allowing him or her to hide amongst or even within the clones. The jutsu was intended to call large amounts of clones that would be so close together that their forms would be merging with each other, breaking up the human form and confusing enemies. Hyuuga's can not look through the clones, as the fairly dense chakra in the clones shroud their view. The weakness of this jutsu is that the clones make no sound aside from talking ad have no scent, meaning that someone orienting themselves by sound or someone with a sense of smell comparable to the Inuzuka can easily find the original. Naruto initially intended this jutsu to replace the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ as one of the standard three academy-taught jutsu and improve the survival-rates for freshly graduated genin, but it was rejected because nobody took him seriously.

_Genzou Bunshin no Yoroi_ (Phantom Clone Armor)  
Rank: C  
Range: Short (0m-4m)  
Type: Support  
A alteration to Naruto's first jutsu. The clones called are identical to those the _Genzou Bunshin no Jutsu_ summons, only these clones all take the same spot as their creator, their chakra covering him like an armor, shielding him or her from the Byakugan. The clones are still independent from their creator, and use this to full advantage. They will attack from other directions and in different ways than the creator, confusing the enemy to which attack should be blocked and which won't do anything. The clones can distance themselves up to four meters from their creator, adding to the confusion by jumping into different directions. As the clones are non-corporal, they can launch feints through each other and the original caster, just as the caster can attack through the body of the clones, making the entire attack highly unpredictable and almost impossible to defend against. Naruto devised this jutsu to further support freshly graduated genin, but nobody paid enough attention for him to even present this jutsu and prove its usefulness.

_Zekkou Sekai_ (Ideal World)  
Rank: ? (Unranked, speculated to be somewhere between B and A)  
Range: Short (0m-5m), Middle (5m-10m), Long (10m+)  
Type: Offensive/Defensive/Support  
First advanced genjutsu designed and created by Naruto. It is based on the idea that to dispel a genjutsu, one must first realize that he is under one. This genjutsu uses the enemy's own planning against them by simulating their expectations, making them see, hear and feel what they expect to feel. It is designed to make the victim experience the 'best possible and plausible turn of events', meaning that the victim's own schemes work against them, and the more detailed their plan of action is and the more they have calculated all risks and thought everything out, the harder it is to realize they are not in the real world. While the jutsu does not have the power to change the perception of time, it alters the short-term memory, making the victim believe that five hours have passed for every minute under the genjutsu. After the 'planned scenario' is over, it causes the body to produce large amounts of endorphin, to keep the victim in a daze of happiness. The last effect was not planned in its creation, but is a positive side-effect that reduces the risk of the victim realizing that something is wrong. A potential weakness is that the victim has not made any plans or expectations, which may cause them to notice that things are going a little bit too well.

I have recently been warned that responding to reviews could result in the deleting of my stories, so I will stop it. However, I think I can put a general Q&A in here.

Q: Will Naruto stay in Konoha?  
A: No. He'll leave eventually, and long before the genin-exams.

Q: Will Naruto be a Missing-nin?  
A: You can't desert from an army you've never joined.

Q: Will Naruto forgive Konoha?  
A: No. He will be in complete control of himself, so he will not go on a killing-spree, but he will hold Konoha and his family in disdain.

Q: When will you update?  
A: When I find the time. There are no set dates, and I rarely give any. However, I do intend to finish every story that I started.

Q: Will Naruto be paired with Hinata?  
A: I can't say for sure, but probably not. The Hyuuga are one of Konoha's most prestigious clans, so it is likely they were invited to Naruto and Natsuki's birthdays, meaning that Hinata was one of those who left Naruto for Natsuki, although she was one of those that sent him a apologizing look. And Natsuki's actions were not meant as blackmail, more like the typical 'You were mean to me so I pretend you don't exist' kinda thing, with an extension to all that are on his side. Children can thing surprisingly black and white.

Well, that's all for now. Wait, one more thing. I'm curious as to how many people actually read the stuff I write in my notes, so all that read this, please add a & to the end of your review so I can make a headcount. Thank you for your cooperation,

Please Review


	4. Crippling Neglect

Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

* * *

Minato and Kushina were peacefully sleeping in their bed, an actual western bed instead of a mere futon, when their instinct woke them, telling them they were no longer alone. The worry was instantly gone when they recognized Natsuki's steps, before she jumped on them both.

"OOF!" Minato called, exaggerating the pain Natsuki caused. When he opened his eyes, he saw she was already completely dressed in clothes and thick jacket, as winter had come early this year. The only thing she wasn't wearing were her shoes, as it was not allowed to wear those in the house.

She smiled at him and Kushina, and jumped up and down on the bed. "C'mon, wake up! It's almost nine! I wanna see my friends. Lets go, lets go, letsgoletsgoletsgo!"

Minato laughed. "Okay okay, we're getting up."

Kushina looked at her daughter. "Don't you want to open your presents first?"

Natsuki shook her head. "Nu-uh. I can open them later, they don't go anywhere. I wanna see my friends!"

Minato and Kushina shrugged and got dressed, Natsuki jumping around like a rubber ball on a sugar-rush, speaking without a single pause, urging her parents to hurry up, before literally dragging the laughing adults outside, still speaking without break.

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto blinked as he stood up. He had really gone overboard last night. He had read through a number of scrolls that the blond woman with the diamond on her forehead had forgotten there, with a dictionary and an encyclopedia for some of the more complicated words, and found a few things that had brought him to put down the basis for two new genjutsu that would be as good or even better as _Zekkou Sekai_. It would probably take months until they were done, but his first self-made genjutsu had given him a feeling for how it worked and what he had to do, so he was confident that he could finish these new ones faster. After he had those ideas somewhat worked out, he had worked on some seals, before falling asleep at three in the morning. Then all he would have to do was get his reserves up to a level were performing them would not be a gamble that always left him unconscious and only worked once every five tries.

Naruto had wisely decided to try his genjutsu one more time, just to be sure, and was disgruntled to learn that he didn't have enough chakra for it, and that the first time had probably been a fluke caused by adrenaline increasing the amount of chakra in his body to beyond what was normal and safe. Of course, by now he could do it without fainting, but it was extremely draining, plus the entire affair had practically been forgotten already. Still, he was proud with himself, and that he kept pushing his limits to surpass them seemed to be working.

He knew he should have taken it a bit easier on the day before his birthday, but it had been so fascinating. And it seemed he was still the first one up, as he couldn't hear any sound, not counting the chirping of birds, the swooshing of leaves in the trees, the slamming of the front door, the... Wait, WHAT?!

Naruto looked out his window, and his heart ached at the sight. He saw his parents, happily laughing with Natsuki, who was holding their hands and using them as a swing, laughing and talking without rest.

At that moment, Naruto was no longer the genjutsu- and fuinjutsu-prodigy, he was no longer the genius that had outmaneuvered a jonin. He was simply a recently seven year old child that had seen his parents go away without him. He didn't even get the idea to open the window and call out to them. Instead he jumped out of the bed, and ran, barefoot and only in his thin pajamas, down the stairs in the opposite end of the building and to the front-door, the gate to the compound slamming shut the moment he opened the door. Naruto ran as fast as he could, intending to beat on the door to gain his parents' attention. He stretched out his left hand to catch the speed and absorb the impact so that he didn't slam face first into the door, the other hand balled to a fist and ready to slam against the gate.

However, luck was not on Naruto's side today. In fact, Naruto's luck had taken the day off, while misfortune was working double-shifts to catch up with the workload. The moment Naruto's left hand touched the gate happened to be the exact moment Minato activated the seals in the gate.

The first seals went up without a problem, including the sound-blocking seal, which ensured that nobody outside could hear what happened inside. That seal had been placed there back when Naruto and Natsuki had been babies and latter had regularly cried the whole neighborhood awake. Minato had added them to ensure that at least the neighbors got some sleep.

However, as bad luck would have it, Naruto's fingers were touching a number of powerful yet for the naked eye invisible seals that should not be connected. Those seals used Naruto's chakra-pathways, apparently believing them to be mere extensions of the array. However, the influx came from all sides and was simply more than the human body was designed to take. Blood splashed, hitting doorway and ceiling as Naruto's skin ripped open in multiple places. He screamed as he felt the pulse of chakra destroy his muscles and crushed the bones in his hand. Then he was blasted backwards, landing on the lawn, his arm little more than a bag of flesh, bone-fragments and, unfortunately for Naruto, pain-receptors. Through some evil miracle, those had remained relatively intact, and were sending Naruto's brain the information that he was in agony.

* * *

Minato glanced at his gate with a frown.

"What's wrong honey?" His wife asked.

Minato looked at her. "I thought I felt a surge from the gate... I'll have to check the seals when we get back, I don't want them malfunctioning when we need them the most."

Kushina nodded, before Natsuki called the attention back to her. "Later dad, now we're going to Hinata's!"

Minato nodded. "Of course we are, Natsuki. The gate's not going anywhere." With that, he turned and left, still a bit concerned about that surge. Then his wife kissed him, and he forgot everything. Natsuki gagged, earning her a playful smack to the back of the head.

* * *

Every twitch, the slightest movement, everything sent waves of unbearable pain through his body. Naruto had tried to stay as still as possible while calling for help, but after a minute of shouting and whimpering, he realized that he was wasting his breath, as he recalled that there were silencing-seals on the walls and gate. Nobody would hear him. He looked at his arm, and immediately looked away. It looked bad, and it was still bleeding profoundly. Naruto knew he'd be in trouble if he didn't stop the bleeding, so he tried to stand up. It took three tries, but with inhuman willpower, he fought himself to his feet, and turned to the house, going for the bandages.

The door was closed. Naruto cursed as he tried to open it, but the door stayed stubborn. What Naruto couldn't have known was that when the gate was sealed shut, the house automatically went into lock-down. All doors and windows closed and were impossible to open until the gate was opened, unless they were opened from the inside. Naruto had left the door open in his rush to reach his parents, and now that it shut, there was nobody in the house to let him back in. which meant no bandages, no medicine, no food, and what would get a problem later, no warm clothing.

Naruto wasted another fifteen minutes circling the house, looking for any opening that would grant him access. After finally accepting he was locked out, Naruto decided to improvise.

"UARGH!" He cried as he took off his shirt, his arm sending agony through his body every time the shirt even so much as grazed it. The left sleeve had been obliterated when his arm burst, so Naruto bit into the right shoulder and tore off the sleeve, before, with cries of pain, tied it tightly around his arm like a rope to restrict the blood-flow in that area. Then he, with great suffering, tightly wrapped the rest of the shirt around the bleeding arm as a make-shift bandage. The scroll he had read yesterday had said that these measures should be taken as soon as possible, and that they had saved lives in the past. Also, it had said something about limbs falling asleep with restricted blood flow, meaning that he would no longer feel the limb in question. Which was good, as right now, Naruto really didn't want to feel his arm.

Naruto shivered. Without his shirt, he really felt how cold the day really was, but if he stayed in the sun, he'd be fine. All he had to do was wait just a little time, then his parents would be there to save him. Everything would be fine.

* * *

Minato sighed. He had been looking forward to a fairly quiet day, chatting with old friends about this and that and sipping on some drinks, but it was not to be. The chunin-exams were coming up, and Minato had failed to see the consequences for the clan-compounds. The outside was being used for training, and the entire ground was covered with kunai, shuriken and the odd senbon, meaning that the children had to stay and play inside. As in where they were. Minato and the other parents had to permanently keep an eye on their children, and with every compound the group progressed, it was getting more hectic. In fact, things were so hectic that it was by sheer coincident that he had met back up with his wife. She gave him a strained smile.

"They're quite a handful, aren't they? I can't remember any time in the war when I was this stressed." She said.

Minato laughed, before frowning. "Me neither. But I can't shake this odd feeling I'm having. Like I've forgotten something important."

Kushina nodded. "You too? It's on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't... NATSUKI UZUMAKI-NAMIKAZE, PUT THAT DOWN THIS INSTANT!" Said girl pouted, but she obediently placed the jar with the powdered antlers back on the shelf where she got them. Kushina followed her, while Minato turned to his old friend and current host, Shikaku Nara.

"I'm really sorry. She's too hyper."

Shikaku waved him off. "Don't worry about it. All the delicate and expensive stuff is sealed where they can't find it."

Minato nodded and went in the opposite direction his wife had headed. There were already six children running around, including Shikaku's own child who was being dragged by a blond Ino Yamanaka. Natsuki's presents had to be sealed in a scroll by now when not used, and Minato really wished for a break. The first thing he'd do when they were finally at the actual festival and everyone looked over the kids was getting dead-drunk.

Still, the odd feeling never left him, but Minato was kept busy by the steadily growing horde of kids, so he shoved the feeling aside, accrediting it to the surge in his gate, opting to take a look when they were back.

The bitter irony was that he was partially right.

* * *

Naruto whimpered. The sun had traveled further, and out of the sun, coldness crept forwards within the shadows. He could faintly see his own breath and that was bad. He again fought himself to his feet, and gracelessly stumbled to the south wall, using his right hand to support himself on the wall, despite the inconvenience.

He felt miserable. For some reason, the wounds were still bleeding, as the torn shirt on his arm still hadn't dried. Even worse, his arm refused to fall asleep, sending agony with every motion. But all moaning wouldn't help him get warm, so he stubbornly set one foot in front of the other, before leaning against the south wall and slowly sliding to the ground.

For a while he distracted himself by going over calculations for genjutsu and seals, but the more time passed, the harder it became to focus. He realized he might be in trouble when he noticed that he had to concentrate to multiply 5m and 7m to get the area of effect for a rectangular 4-point barrier in m². He understood that the loss of blood was slowly becoming a problem, his first aid being meant as exactly that, _first_ aid to prepare for the actual medics to do their magic, and was slowly failing in keeping him up. His vision had also started to become slightly blurry.

Naruto's mind slowly shut down, the higher brain-functions slowly ceasing to conserve energy. He had crawled to the west-wall, so that when his parents came in a few minutes at most, they would see him more easily.

And while his mind dimmed more and more, one thought went through Naruto's mind again and again. It was the same thought that had kept him alive and awake up till now.

'Mom and dad will be here soon. They'll come for you, Naruto. You just have to hang in there for just a little bit longer.'

He didn't even notice when the sun vanished behind the horizon and a light snow began to fall.

* * *

Minato sighed. Even directly after the Kyuubi-attack, when seven meetings a day had been considered little work, he had not been so stressed out. These kids had sheer limitless energy, and with every house they visited, it only got worse. The horde of children grew, while the adults opted to stay at home, reuniting with their offspring at the Kyuubi-festival, to which they were currently heading. He already knew what he would do when he finally could take his eyes off that small army of chaos, namely getting shit-drunk. He suspected that having to watch all those children alone was some sick punishment the clan-heads were subjecting him to because they were unhappy with certain decisions with the council, although he couldn't think of one that would warrant such draconian measures.

Finally the many stands of the festival came into view, the setting sun shining through a hole in the clouds, letting the falling snow glow in a magical light. It was a sight that really lifted the spirits with its beauty. He put an arm around Kushina, both smiling, until the sound of gagging reminded him of the little plagues. He looked at them.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go have fun." They were gone before the words had faded away in the noise of the slowly growing crowd.

Minato pumped his fist. "Freedom! Sake, here we come!"

Kushina shook her head, but she followed him to the stand where a few of their friends were already waving at them. The rest of the evening belonged strictly to the adults, and nothing that even faintly involved someone below fifteen would be mentioned, unless the person in question was a stranger to most or a shinobi that could be embarrassed with stories about old times.

Life was good.

* * *

The entire world had become nothing but a dark blur. The silence was deafening, only his weak breathing cutting through the absolute quiet. Everything was so cold.

Naruto couldn't see it, but the snow falling on him had gradually stopped melting, his legs and shoulders now looking whitish, while a white cap seemed to have formed on his head. His body was already too weak and exhausted to shiver. And still one thought kept Naruto clinging to life, even as his body was slowly shutting down.

'They'll be here shortly. Hang on. Just a little bit longer.'

* * *

Natsuki was sitting on her father's lap, rocking back and forth. She had had a lot of fun at the festival so far, playing the games like ring-tossing, which was completely different from her shuriken-training, or catching goldfish she could then keep as pets. And the food was great! Of course nothing beat Ichiraku's, but the cotton candy, sugar-roasted almonds and all the other sweets had come close. Now they were sitting under umbrellas, waiting for the real highlight, the fireworks. The festival was great, but seeing the sky illuminated by a thousand colors was always the best thing.

If only she weren't so tired. It was long past her bed-time, but since the academy was nice enough to give the day after the festival off as well, the children could stay up and watch the fireworks without being zombies in the class the following morning.

Natsuki smiled, as she chatted with her friends, who were sitting around them with their respective parents. Her dad smelled a little like sake, but it was okay. She looked at him.

"Dad, how long until the fireworks? How long? Howlonghowlonghowlong?"

Minato smiled. "In five, four," The entire crowd had started to join the count.

"THREE"

"TWO"

"ONE"

BOOM

The fireworks had begun, exactly at the time Minato had sealed the beast, midnight. Everyone laughed, cheered and congratulated each other.

Everyone except for one.

* * *

The booming and the sudden eruptions of color in the blur of Naruto's vision had pulled Naruto out of his trance. Although he could not see the fireworks blooming in the sky like giant flowers, his mind instinctively knew what it was.

It was midnight.

His birthday was over.

His body shivered, snow falling off his weakly twitching head and shoulders. He was much to weak to laugh, but hollow chuckles escaped his lips as he understood.

'They forgot me. They forgot I existed.'

He knew that his parents had occasionally forgotten about him for moments when stressed, probably because Naruto had somehow had gained the ability to merge with the background and become invisible, not to mention that Natsuki hogged and horded all available attention like a miser horded money, but he had never thought it was this bad.

For the first time since he woke up, Naruto cried.

* * *

The fireworks had lasted almost half an hour, but now they were over. Minato looked at his daughter. "Well Natsuki, time to leave."

His daughter pouted. "Do we have to?" She caught her mother's look, and quickly added "Just asking."

Suddenly a POOF rang through the air and a giant toad appeared, a white-heired man riding it. "JIRAYA THE TOAD-SAGE HAS ARRIVED!" He called, and the parents quickly sheathed the weapons they had instinctively drawn.

"Uncle Jiraya!" Natsuki shouted, jumping at the man who sometimes visited and always told her funny stories.

Minato smiled. "You're back in town sensei? Looks like I have to reinforce the guards around the hot-springs. So, how long have you been here?"

Jiraya laughed. "Just arrived. I couldn't very well just pass Konoha without giving Natsuki here her birthday present."

Natsuki looked up with sparkling eyes. "You have something for me?"

He ruffled her hair. "Of course I do. Who do you think I am?"

"An uncorrectable pervert." Kushina answered.

Jiraya clutched his chest in mock-pain. "You wound me Kushina. However, since I smell the alcohol on you both, I'll let it slide."

Natsuki was impatiently pulling on his leg. "So, what's my present?"

Jiraya puffed his chest. "Well, your parents told me that you have incredible chakra-reserves, so I will grant you the honor, the once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to... sign the Toad-contract!"

Natsuki's eyes widened, then she jumped up and down in joy. "YAY, I GET TO BE JUST LIKE DADDY!"

Jiraya shook his head, summoned the toad that held the contract and unrolled it. "Now Natsuki, a summoning-contract is special. You have to sign your name, yes, your full name, with your blood, and then leave a hand-print in blood. Then you get to summon toads, just like me and your father."

Natsuki had frowned when she heard she had to sign with her own blood, but she quickly got over it and cut open her hand to write in blood. Once she finished, she looked at Jiraya. "How do I summon?"

Jiraya smirked. "Now that is for your father to tell you. He'll decide when you're ready for it."

Natsuki pouted. "No fair!" She shouted, but she ran off to brag to her friends.

Jiraya laughed again, before looking around. "Well, Natsuki got her present. So, where is the other one? The quiet little blond?"

All color drained from Kushina and Minato's faces.

"Naruto." Kushina whispered. "We left him at home!"

"He probably destroyed the house by now." Minato tried to joke, but his face told of his shock.

Jiraya blinked. "What do you mean, you left him alone. I heard that he seems to be a troublemaker, but don't you think it's a little cruel to punish him on his birthday?"

Kushina shook her head. "We didn't punish him... we forgot."

Jiraya blinked. He didn't believe his ears. "You forgot your own son? On his _birthday_?"

Minato seemed completely disturbed by himself. "I... we... when we woke up... Natsuki... so much chaos... had to look everywhere at once... there was never a moment's quiet... ah shit." He turned towards the compound, Kushina having retrieved Natsuki in the meantime, and together they ran to the Namikaze-compound.

Minato had somewhat regained his cool by then. He looked at Kushina. "Well, what will we give as an excuse?"

Kushina smiled weakly. "He probably won't forgive us this until he graduates. We have to make it up to him somehow."

Minato chuckled, although it sounded a bit strained. "How about we don't punish for demolishing the house, which he has likely done by now?"

Kushina sent him a stern look. "I'm serious Minato! He's going to be terribly upset, and he has every right to be! How could we forget him?"

Now Minato sobered. "I don't know. We woke up, still half asleep, and Natsuki practically dragged us out the front door and to her friends, the most exhausting because hyper ones first. We never had a real moment's peace until the festival, and at that point, we wanted and did knowingly forget the fact that children even existed. It's not really an excuse, but nobody else mentioned him before Jiraya."

Kushina frowned. "Naruto acts so shy. He always stays in the background. Even though he's there, he doesn't act like he's there. I don't think he has many friends. None of the children even asked where Naruto was, doesn't that make you worry?"

Minato nodded. He was about to say more, but they had reached the gate. Minato looked at it, slightly worried. His instincts told him that he didn't want to see what was behind that gate. He had had that feeling before, and the room he had entered then had been plastered with exploding-notes.

Jiraya noticed his hesitation. "What's wrong? Steeling yourself for the sight of the ruins of your house? Or are you worried that he might have booby-trapped the gate?"

Minato shook his head. "No. well, that too, but I'm getting a bad vibe. And I just remembered that there seemed to have been a slight surge in the gate when I closed it this morning. But, let's go in. KAI!"

The seals glowed, and Minato got a short report. No windows or doors were opened during the duration of lock-down. Apparently Naruto had decided to let out his anger indoors. He opened the gate, and fell into panic before he even looked inside.

Jiraya had smelled the breeze the moment the compound was no longer hermetically sealed, and immediately rendered Natsuki unconscious. Something was very wrong, if the coppery smell of blood was any indication, and he didn't think Natsuki should see whatever it was.

Kushina gagged at the smell, before rushing through the gate. It took all her effort not to scream.

There were bloody hand-prints, just the size of a seven-year-old's hands, going from the front door, which seemed to have a number of scratches, where someone had apparently tried to open it. The prints made a trail on the wall leading around the compound. Kushina rushed off, while Minato stared in shock.

"No door opened. No window opened. They all close in lock-down and can't be opened from the outside. The gate can't be opened, period. But where did all the blood come from?"

Jiraya looked around. He noticed the scratches on the inside of the main gate, and he saw the splatters of blood on the frame. "Minato, look at this. There's blood on the frame, even the ceiling. You said there was a surge on the gate? Could it be he touched the seals when you activated them?"

Minato looked at his former teacher, his mind apparently still unable to puzzle together what was going on. "I... but... It's possible, but then..."

A heartbreaking scream interrupted them, coming from the left side of the house. Minato and Jiraya dashed, the latter taking note that the ground beneath the oddly reddish-brown snow was sticky.

* * *

Kushina was holding her child, which she had found leaning on the west-wall of the compound. He had, according to the blood on the wall, including larger stains where he had rested, apparently gone with the sunlight to stay warm. While that was an admirable show of strength, when she had found him, Naruto had been draped in a thin sheet of white. His eyes were dull and unfocused, tears leaving their marks on the inhumanly pale skin. Kushina wailed, holding her son, rocking back and forth.

When her husband arrived, she looked up. Nameless terror was etched on his face. "Kami in heaven, have mercy." He whispered.

Jiraya looked between the two of them, before loudly clapping his hands. "What are you two doing?! We have to get him to Tsunade, NOW!"

Jiraya himself was the most upset one of them all. Admittedly, his contact with the boy, now that he thought about it, had been non-existent, but he could honestly say that he had no fault in what happened to the boy. He had been the one, and shamefully for all clans that were visited, the first and only one, to ask about Naruto's whereabouts, although if he was honest, he only remembered when he had let Natsuki sign the contract, not wanting to look like he preferred a sibling to the other.

When they arrived at the hospital, where Tsunade always resided in such situations, because there was always someone, usually a two- to three-digited number of someones, who drank more than they could stomach, said blond dropped a glass she had been holding, letting it shatter on the floor.

"What the hell did you do with the kid?!" She asked, enraged. She glared at Jiraya. "If you had anything to do with this..."

Said man quickly raised his hands in defense. "I had no part in it! I just got here ten minutes ago!"

Kushina, still clutching her lifeless son, looked at Tsunade. "I beg of you, save my son!"

Tsunade looked at her. "I want an explanation later." She moved a chakra-covered hand to Naruto's head, then to his chest, after prying him out of Kushina's arms and putting him on a stretcher with attached mobile table.

"Don't ask me how, but he's still alive." She tore open the jacket wrapped around Naruto's arm, not that it could be identified as such, and her eyes widened. "Dear kami." she muttered, before her eyes widened. "His heartbeat's fading. We're losing him!" She placed her hands on the boy's chest, sending weak bursts of lightning-chakra to keep the heart going, before looking at the nearest doctor. "Prep me a room ASAP! He won't last much longer!"

The man nodded and ran, Tsunade and a squad of medics attracted by the commotion rolling Naruto after him.

His parents and Jiraya were not allowed beyond the reception.

* * *

After nearly ten hours of surgery, both shinobi-style and old-fashioned, Tsunade returned to the waiting parents. Jiraya had gone and parked Natsuki at the Yamanaka-household, stating that a private emergency made it impossible for Natsuki to stay at the Namikaze-compound for a day or two. That was actually true, and he had left before any questions could be asked.

Kushina jumped up and rushed to the blond woman. "How is he? Please Tsunade, tell me he's okay!"

Tsunade snorted. "He's far from okay. But fine, I'll fill you in on the details before I demand my explanation about what happened."

She took a deep breath. "He was heavily injured, to be more precise his left arm was, nearly bled dry and suffering from hypothermia to a ridiculous extent. In his limbs, the body temperature was just barely above freezing, the surface-temperature of his skin in some cases even below freezing. By all rights and every medical text in the history of mankind, the boy should be dead, but we've stabilized him. What was one of the reasons for his heavy blood-loss was that some foreign chakra was stuck in the wounds and prevented the blood from clotting. The boy will live, and surprisingly, there is no damage to his brain. That's where the good news ends."

Minato, who had slumped together in relief, looked at her. "Why? There is no mental damage as you say, and knowing you, he'll make a full recovery. You've fixed worse."

Tsunade shook her head. "No, I haven't. And I said there was no brain-damage. There will probably be tons of mental damage. The wounds had been open for hours as far as I could tell, and the boy must have been conscious to cling to life for that long. So I can honestly say he'll never be the same again."

Kushina bit her lip. "Can't we... remove the traumatizing memory?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Not without altering his entire mind. This will leave physical changes, and looking at those will make him wonder where he got them, which will destroy any block we put up in short time. Unless you want to alter every memory in his head to make him think he's always been like that, it's useless. And even then, there's no guarantee it'll actually hold, as we can't delete memories, only suppress them."

Minato looked at her. "What physical changes?"

Tsunade let out a deep sigh. "His career as a shinobi is almost certainly over."

Jiraya looked up. "Why?"

Tsunade looked at him. "Had you brought the boy in immediately, or at least one or two hours ago, I probably would have been able to get him back to a almost completely functioning condition. But when you brought him, I had to chose between saving his arm and saving his life."

Minato paled. "What do you mean?"

Tsunade gave him a stern look. "Whatever happened to his arm, it was bad. The bones in his hand up to the elbow are completely shattered. All muscles are shredded, most blood-vessels heavily damaged. Also, since the boy restricted the blood-circulation to that arm, something that saved his life, a lot of tissue has simply died. What the boy did was obviously only supposed to last for a few minutes, an hour at most. All in all, that arm is little more than grinded meat with splinters. The skin had multiple large tears, so the arm lost mass. All that I can probably fix in a week or so. However, the real damage was done to his chakra-coils."

Jiraya looked at her, no shred of his usual cheerfulness in his eyes. Damage to the coils was always bad. Those were the lifeline of a shinobi, and if there was something wrong, especially in such a vital area as the hand, the shinobi in question was a sitting duck, unable to use any jutsu requiring handsigns. "How bad is it?"

Tsunade looked away. "They are completely shattered all the way up to the shoulder. Those can't be fixed, and even if by some miracle they do regrow, it will be severely crippled. His left arm will never again mold chakra. Also, the nerves responsible for movement were also damaged. It is almost certain that he will never again be able to move his left arm properly."

She gave a stern look to all three, who shrank under her glare. "Whatever you did, it left Naruto a cripple."

* * *

Chapter 4 is complete. Longest one yet, and it'll probably stay the longest one for a while. It'll also be this story's last chapter for a while. I do have other stories, both published and not, that I also need to work on. I also hurt my hand the other day, I fell and lost a fair bit of skin on my palm, so writing is really painful for me right now. I hope you can respect my sacrifice for your entertainment.

I'm not completely satisfied with how this chapter turned out, to be honest. While, against the belief of some, I actually do put some thought in planning out my stories, what I have in mind is usually how it would look as an anime. I think pictures, and try to put it into words, which is surprisingly difficult. Still, for now, it'll have to do. I've been working on it all week, and I'm tired of it.

I realize that I have made things easy for myself by essentially crippling Minato's and Kushina's competence, and of course a shinobi would be able to spot a lie. Assuming of course, he was looking for one. Also, children and adults act differently when lying, especially when the child has yet to make any negative experience with telling lies. People get nervous when lying, because they imagine what might happen when they're found out. A child doesn't necessarily plan beyond 'I say this and everything will be better for me', and not even get the idea they could get caught. Come on, kids think they're invincible until proven wrong. Also, of course there were seals on Minato's compound to keep people out, but those actually have to be activated to work, and with years of absolute peace since the Kyuubi-attack, people, even professionals, may get careless and sloppy. And the Shodaime's barrier does not work the way it's supposed to, because, as I've mentioned last chapter, Kyuubi's youki is still flooding some areas, latching to any living tissue, dissolving it while draining it of chakra and anything else it can use to fuel itself, and also corrupting the barrier.

I know I'm justifying mistakes I made, but hey, if you walk on thin ice, you might as well dance.

And regarding the parents' behavior this chapter, I know it's not that probable, but it is within the realm of possibility. I tried to describe that the situation here was similar to the one that occurred in the good old movie 'Home Alone'. It's not that the parents don't love, it's that their minds are permanently occupied, leaving them no opportunity to actually think about anything but keeping Natsuki and her permanently growing horde of helpers from wrecking complete havoc on wherever they were at the time, as Minato, Hokage or not, could be put under serious pressure from an angry clan-head or five. I call the plausibility of this scenario with the same authority that the makers of 'Home Alone 2' used to explain how a mother could sit in an airplane for what had to be at least an hour and not notice her son was not on board the entire time.

On a different note, my story seems to be attracting high-class critics, sniff. Thanks to Dan for the long overdue criticism on my chapters. I know that they're not as good as they should be, even though I don't think they're really as bad as you make them out. Truth be told, I am more or less speeding through the beginning to reach the point I actually wanted to be by now, meaning Naruto having at least gained his special left arm by now. And the _Genzou Bunshin_ are not genjutsu, they are actual bunshins, even if non-corporal. If you have trouble accepting that, think of them as bunshin stuck in Madara's special intangibility-jutsu. They exist, they are more than images and they cannot be dispelled by disrupting one's chakra, but they cannot interact with the world, nor can they be damaged or dispelled by anyone but the caster. And yes, I know fooling the Byakugan like that was a little unrealistic. However, the four tailed cloak was not blocking the sight on Naruto because it was so much chakra, I'm willing to bet that Killerbee's seven-tailed cloak had more chakra than that, and you could see him just fine, but because blood mixed with it, and probably some more factors. My point being, the chakra in my type of bunshin is not distributed through the entire clone, but more like a very thin sheet. And for those who see chakra, it is designed to be bright. It's not blinding because there's so much chakra, it's blinding because the chakra is supposed to be blinding. And the _Kage Bunshin_ actually made complete and perfect copies of the original, it would not vanish in a cloud of smoke when fatally injured, but bleed and die, nor would the jutsu, not the one calling massive amounts, but the one calling just one, be a mere B-rank. If you go to Narutopedia you'll find that the _Kage Bunshin_ by itself is not a kinjutsu, the version calling hundreds of clones is one. The fatality of that jutsu is being exaggerated by countless writers, not that I really mind. And if the _Kage Bunshin_ were perfect clones, that would not explain the sending information back to the user. I actually believe it creates a clone that fools the Byakugan not because it's a perfect copy down to the chakra-coils, but because it focuses on creating the chakra-coils, which is what the Byakugan looks for. It creates a solid clone out of chakra, that has chakra-coils and essentially uses itself as fuel for jutsu. If you look at the anime, when the Byakugan is shown, you never see stuff like guts or other organs. You see the chakra-coils, a blue flame signifying the chakra-pool, and the very first time it was used and pretty much never again, bones. So it is fooled by the _Kage Bunshin_ because chakra-wise, they are identical to the original.

I said this many times before, I can take criticism. Dan, I don't mind pointing out what I did wrong, go a little easier with the insults, and it won't be a flame. Accept the story as it is, and I'll try to improve it, or if you really hate it so much, then don't read it.

Now onto the Q & A

Q: Why didn't Minato and Kushina notice Natsuki was lying about the picture?  
A: Two reasons. I wrote the first one further up. As for the second one, Minato and Kushina saw Natsuki drawing the picture, even if she was just adding names, with their own eyes. They also saw Naruto coming into the house from outside after they had arrived. They already believed it was Natsuki before Naruto could even open his mouth.

Q: Why doesn't he perform the genjutsu again to prove it?  
A: Because getting it right the first time was a fluke. It took more chakra than he actually had possessed at the time, and when he tried it in private before showing it to his parents, he found it only works... Why am I writing this? I put it in the story, find it there.

Q: Will Naruto join Akatsuki, Kiri, Suna, Iwa,...?  
A: No. after seeing what being dependent on someone brought him, Naruto will not join any organization or village. He might visit villages, but he won't actively join. And yes, I intend to describe what he does outside of Konoha in detail. And Naruto will actually try not to make too big of a name for himself. Publicity only leads to problems. He'll do stuff, but he prefers nobody knows.

Q: Why doesn't he dare Natsuki to do the genjutsu to show she lied?  
A: Nobody believes Natsuki did it on her own. They think that the Kyuubi stepped in for the sake of self-preservation and nailed the Iwa-nin, so nobody would be surprised if she couldn't do it on command.

Q: Why didn't anyone suspect Naruto, who showed talent with Genjutsu?  
A: What Naruto mastered were low-level genjutsu. That would be like suspecting your 6 year old child is piloting a mysterious Blackbird because he learned how to ride a bicycle very fast.

Q: Pairings?  
A: Undecided, though most likely not Hinata, Sakura or Ino.

Q: What happens when Natsuki sleeps in Naruto's bed?  
A: I'll probably explain next chapter.

Q: Will anyone train Naruto?  
A: He'll be self-taught. That doesn't mean he won't use things he finds or 'borrows' to his advantage, he will simply have no official trainer.

Q: What's the Devil's Arm?  
A: Not telling yet, but it is something I invented myself, so it has nothing to do with any game or series.

That's all for now, thanks for reading and

Please Review


	5. Recovering?

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto  
_

Tsunade was sitting in her office, Minato, Kushina and Jiraiya sitting before her, all terrible nervous because of the twitch on Tsunade's brow. "So let me see if I got this strait. When you two woke up last morning, Natsuki was hopping around on your bed, rushing you to hurry up so that she could see her friends. In your drowsy state of mind, you got dressed and left with her, completely forgetting that Naruto was sleeping only a few feet away. Has something like this ever happened before? Is occasionally forgetting your quiet son in favor of your loud daughter on the list of things you do or did you just pick a lousy time to try something new?" Sarcasm was dripping from her voice.

Kushina sobbed, but nodded. "It may have happened once or twice. Naruto is just so quiet, you completely forget he's there, especially with Natsuki around."

That part Tsunade couldn't deny, as she herself had once taken five minutes to notice Naruto was there when the Namikaze-family had come to her for a checkup. "Anyways, you sealed the compound when you left, to ensure that no assassin sneaks in while you're away and hides to kill you in your sleep, like that man from Iwa a few months ago. While sealing the gate, Minato, you noticed a surge in the chakra-flow. You didn't investigate, why?"

Minato looked uncomfortable. "A spike or surge in a seal-array is usually the first warning that one of the seals is fading, either because the surface it was applied on is wearing down or because the ink is fading off. However, it is not necessarily a cause for alarm, especially not when there have been no prior surges, as it is merely a warning that one of the seals is not in perfect condition. When the first surge comes, that is a sign that you should check the array out in the next few months, or something might fail. I had planned to thoroughly inspect the seals on my free day tomorrow. Also, the surge was weak and gone as soon as it came, which indicates only a minor defect. When I made a rudimentary analysis, the flow was just how it was supposed to be, so I figured that the damage must have been minor at worst. Also, not only the gates, but the walls and my entire house are connected through that array, which means there are almost 10.000 individual seals that I would have to carefully analyze to find the damaged seal, as the surge was weak and didn't give any indication of where I would have to look to find the problem. Which means that it would have taken hours to find the problem, which at the moment I really didn't want to spend crawling into all dusty corners of the compound to check the seals while my wife enjoyed the day alone. And after the incident with the Iwa-nin, I added a second array of security-seals working independently from the main array. Anyone not keyed into the system who would enter the compound would have been knocked out and kept unconscious and paralyzed until I woke him up for interrogation, and I activated that system before leaving, and it was working perfectly, so I didn't see a danger in leaving the surge alone for a day."

Jiraiya nodded. "That is how it works. A surge would suggest that one looks over his arrays, but if it is the first time it happens, you generally have around half a year until any real problems show."

"Naruto should be grateful then that you didn't decide to camp out for a few months? And Minato, did you at least remember to key Naruto into that system, or did you forget him too while you worked on the seals?" Tsunade asked in a sneer.

Now Minato was offended. "Of course he is keyed in!"

Tsunade sighed. "Anyways, you then visited a dozen or so compounds, and because all of the children running around there, you didn't have time to think of Naruto. Even when you visited the Yamanaka their blond hair did not remind anyone that you had a son with the same hair-color, correct? and nobody in any of the compounds asked where Naruto was either, or even had a present for him. Is that right?"

Slow nods answered her. She took a deep breath. "And then you went to the festival, where practically the entire village welcomed you, and again, nobody thought of Naruto. You let the kids run around and when you had your free and calm moment, you all decided to get shit-faced and pretend children did not exist, is that right? And Jiraiya, who I know has been in the country for at least three days, decided he'd rather go peep on women in the hotsprings rather than visit his godchildren. Meanwhile, Naruto got his arm shredded by your arrays because he touched the gate his family had closed in front of his face, and spent his entire birthday bleeding into the yard. And lets not forget, the only present he got that day, the ones locked up in your compound don't count, was a crippling injury and the end of his career as a shinobi, long before it officially began. Does that about sum it up?"

All three looked at each other. It sounded horrible when Tsunade said it like that, but they couldn't really say anything, because that was essentially what happened. So they slowly nodded.

Tsunade looked ready to explode, but with inhuman effort, she managed to reign her temper in. she took a deep, calming breath. "Name one reason why I should not pick up this desk and whack you all with it until you look like triplets." She pinched her nose, before turning to the door. "SHIZUNE, I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT IT, I NEED SAKE RIGHT NOW!"

As it turned out, Shizune had been eavesdropping, and for once actually agreed with Tsunade. When shit like this happened, alcohol was a good friend to lean on. She brought a bottle and two cups, one for Tsunade and one for herself. She wasn't a heavy drinker, but you don't spend years with Tsunade without learning how to hold your liquor.

Tsunade finished her first cup in one go, before looking at the downcast parents plus godfather. "You've caused a wonderful mess. Now you deal with it. You three decide which one of you gets to explain to Naruto that he'll never be shinobi, and especially why." With that, she stood up and left. Silence reigned in the room after the door closed.

-0-

Slowly, Naruto opened his eyes. The ceiling was unfamiliar, but somehow, he didn't really care. He felt hollow inside. He tried to sit up, but dropped back into the cushions, realizing that it was futile. He felt weak, horribly weak. Had Natsuki crawled into his bed again? No, he was alone. Also, this wasn't his room, so he couldn't be in his bed. Why was he here?

Then it slowly came back to him. He remembered seeing his parents, laughing happily while accompanying Natsuki outside, without even thinking about him. He remembered running to the gate, then pain. Unbearable pain in his arm. The rest was a blur, but one more thing he did remember. He remembered how colors had erupted in his field of vision, breaking through darkness while loud booms broke the silence that reigned for what seemed like an eternity. He had laid there on the ground, and for the entire day, for his entire birthday, and nobody had come for him. His parents had just let him lay there and bleed out. That Natsuki didn't say anything even if she remembered wouldn't surprise Naruto, she was becoming unbearable.

Still, a part of him could not believe what had happened. That part was dying off quicker than his glutton of a sister could devour a bowl of ramen, but a part of him had still held this believe of the parents that would always be there when you really needed them, and that part was crushed.

Naruto looked down on his right arm. It was in a cast. Well, he had suspected that bones were broken when his wrist and fingers had bent backwards the second time he sat down to rest in the sun. Good thing that for all his genjutsu but _Zekkou Sekai_, he no longer needed handsigns. Well, he needed eye-contact, concentration and some obvious gesture to get it to work, and they were only low-ranking ones, but a success was a success.

Even more so since Naruto was now on his own. While he knew that his parents, who had to have brought him here, as they were the only ones who could open the gate, would probably not discard him, from this point on, the only person Naruto would trust and rely on was Naruto. Never again would he give anyone a chance to betray him like his parents had.

And speak of the devil, the door opened, and two patches of yellow and red with two people attached to them entered Naruto's field of vision. Strangely, the sight of his parents filled Naruto with no more emotion than he had before, if anything his emotions seemed to fade away.

-0-

Minato and Kushina entered the room. To their surprise, Naruto was awake, something Tsunade had said she was not sure if it would happen within the year, depending on how long Naruto's mind would need to get over the shock. Was his almost immediate awakening a good sign for his recovery, or was it bad that it only took a few hours to get over the feeling of being effectively abandoned by his parents in his greatest hour of need?

Minato gulped. "Hi Naruto."

The boy didn't answer. He simply laid in the bed, Tsunade had said that the boy would probably feel extremely weak because of the amounts of blood he had lost, so it was unlikely he'd be sitting up if he woke up earlier than the day after tomorrow, but the silence was unnerving.

Kushina tried again. "How are you feeling?"

Naruto's brow raised a fraction of an inch. Kushina cursed herself, it was a stupid question.

Naruto looked at her with those strangely empty eyes. "How long?" He finally asked.

Kushina blinked. "How long until what?"

"Until my arm is healed." Naruto replied.

Kushina and Minato exchanged a glance, each not wanting to be the bearer of the news. Minato grimaced, before slowly replying. "It'll take... time. A lot of time I'm afraid. For now, you may want to learn how to operate with one arm."

Naruto slowly nodded. If his suspicion was correct, the bones in his arm were probably little more than splinters, and he had a feeling that a number of those splinters had left his arm with the blood. Fixing all that would probably take weeks, and then he had to go through rehabilitation. All in all, months would probably pass before he was back to normal.

Kushina fidgeted. "Naruto, sweetie, please speak with us." She pleaded. This silence was more than she could take.

Naruto looked at her. "Fine. Where were you last night?"

Kushina looked as if she had just been slapped. "I-I..."

Naruto gave both her and his father a cold look. "I waited, but you did not come. The fireworks went off, and you still weren't there." With that, he closed his eyes and let himself fall into the darkness, the conversation finished from his point of view.

Kushina was pale as a ghost. Her lips moved, but no sound escaped them. Naruto had really stayed conscious the entire time until midnight, suffering through what Tsunade had said could only have been living hell, waiting for them?

Minato, equally pale, took his wife's shoulder. He tried to speak, but his mouth was so dry, it took him three tries. "I... I don't think he wants to see us right now."

Kushina nodded and they left. That night, neither of them slept.

-0-

Three days later, Naruto was cleared by Tsunade to go home, with clear instructions of taking it easy, not doing any strenuous activity for longer than five minutes, putting absolutely no pressure on the arm and not try and channel chakra with it. Naruto nodded, understanding the need of leaving the arm alone to heal.

Of course, that didn't mean he would just sit back and watch his muscles degenerate. He would do bits of light exercise, and continue with his genjutsu. He would not channel any chakra into his left arm, the doctor didn't say such things without a reason after all, but the rest of his body was fair game. And seals were something he could work on without putting strain on his body. Good thing he was right-handed, his calligraphy would not be impaired by this...circumstance. And he could still draw and paint. He had started latter recently, and it had taken him a while to figure out how to mix colors and create a picture without making a mess out of both himself and the canvas, and he needed more practice, but nobody could say he had no hobbies outside of ninja-work. It was also a perfect disguise, as artists were some of the few people who wandered everywhere and roused no suspicion when looking around or checking out places in detail.

During the next week, he improved on both his art, although those did not last, as he managed to make a for his standards complicated array that summoned the paint back into their jars when Naruto was done, giving him both the opportunity to practice without wasting paint or canvasses, thus saving money, and doing so in secrecy, as whenever Minato and Kushina entered, all they saw was a blank canvas, a remain of something that Naruto, so they believed, once planned to start but never really did. It also kept everything clean, which was another plus.

Still, his arm was a bother right now. It didn't hurt, but it was a handicap that barred him from a few things he wanted to do, not only unarmed combat, but swordsmanship and, what left a bitter taste in his mouth despite not really expecting anything from his parents anymore, jutsu-lessons. With only one hand, he couldn't form the handsigns needed for new jutsu, meaning Natsuki was slowly starting to get ahead of him in those aspects, especially now that his parents could completely focus on her during those lessons and correct her mistakes.

Remembering when he had come for the usual lessons, only to be sent away, still upset Naruto, not that he showed it to anyone.

-0-

_Flashback_

He had been about enter the dojo, but his mother stood before him, looking regretful. "I'm sorry Naruto, but right now, you're in no condition for swordplay."

Naruto was upset. "Why not?"

Kushina sighed. "Naruto, I'm not trying to be mean, but you're not in a condition to fight. Your left side is a obvious weakness you can't defend. You can't even correctly hold a sword. Please understand, it's just not possible."

Naruto's expression turned emotionless. "And whose fault is that?" He asked bitterly.

Kushina's lips moved, but whatever she had wanted to say got stuck in her throat.

Naruto turned away. "Never mind," he muttered. "I understand _perfectly_."

He walked away. Somehow, he was not very surprised when a few hours later his father stopped him when he moved to jutsu-practice, saying because of his arm he couldn't participate, although it filled him with an even deeper bitterness, as one-handed handsigns existed, and Naruto knew Minato knew they existed, although Minato had no idea that Naruto knew. He had spat out something similar to what he'd said to Kushina and left.

Minato and Kushina met up in the evening, and knowing that Naruto that Naruto was upset, they tried to gather the courage to tell him the truth. That his arm would never really heal and that he couldn't be a shinobi. That they had canceled his lessons to prevent him from going on a rampage or run off to live as a ronin or something like that was something they didn't even admit to themselves, although they were both worried. Without any real ability or skill, they knew that Naruto would be less likely to run off and get himself killed, as he was smart. Still, neither could shake a bad feeling.

_End of Flashback_

-0-

But that was not to say that Minato and Kushina didn't look out for Naruto. Quite the opposite, after he returned home, there was constantly at least one of them around him, unless it was time for the now solely devoted to Natsuki training or shinobi-duties, looking out for him and offering assistance wherever he may need it.

While a week ago that would have been the fulfillment of Naruto's wildest dreams, things had changed, and now Naruto was getting annoyed by them buzzing around him because of their guilty conscience. Honestly, he began wishing they would just act like they had before, and leave him alone to spend time with his sister, as he really didn't want to see their faces. That's not to say he didn't use opportunities when they arose, as on the first day home, he had asked his father for a written permission to use the library, and got it. The man had been on such a guilt-trip when seeing his son dragging his body into the house, the left arm little more than a club-shaped mess of bandages, that he probably would have even signed his own execution.

Naruto had used that permission as a reason to spend as much time as possible out of the house, most of it in the library, but he also simply wandered through Konoha. It gave him some much-needed relief from his family, although the ANBU were getting annoying.

Speaking of his family, Natsuki was slowly getting unbearable. She was smart enough not to do anything but send dirty looks while her parents were in earshot, but when alone, she was getting really nasty. While she couldn't blame any pranks on him right now, she kept taking shots at his injury and kept bragging that she could still take lessons, something that actually got under his skin.

However, there was something going on that he didn't know about. The first indication was when Naruto had been walking around and accidentally stumbled upon a training-ground where a group of the main-branch of the Hyuuga-clan were currently practicing their techniques. He had paused to look at the display, it was after all the greatest of all taijutsu of Konoha, assuming one compared the damage they could cause on a specific level of proficiency with the style. No other taijutsu-style allowed its user to cause the same degree of damage at little training.

Of course, after standing there for a few minutes, one of the Hyuuga had looked his way. At first he seemed angry, but after looking at him closely, his eyes filled with something that could almost be described as pity, and he and all others just went on with their training, ignoring him.

What Naruto didn't know was that the news of the Hokage's son being permanently crippled and was now unable to become a shinobi, since he was unable to even mold chakra correctly, had spread throughout the village, although nobody talked of it often and the children had no idea. And as is usual with rumors, this one like many others before it spiraled out of control, until everyone believed Naruto was unable to produce chakra or even feel his arm. So the Hyuuga, and all others he would observe in the next weeks saw him not as someone spying on their training, but as a broken figure that out of a masochistic craving watched others practice what was forever out of his reach, just so that he could feel some connection to the shinobi-life. Ironically, the harshest clans, the Hyuuga and the Uchiha, were the most tolerant of his existence, both pitying him for the loss of what they considered the most precious gift, the ability to properly move one's body and the ability to use chakra and leaving him alone as long as he didn't bother anyone. After all, what harm could one boy do? They didn't teach him any secrets he could spill, not that it was likely he would even if they did, as he was the son of the Hokage. What could it hurt to let him watch?

Naruto didn't understand what was going on, but he would not look a gift horse in the mouth as he observed other shinobi training in their art. As an artist and a genjutsu-prodigy, even if unacknowledged, he had an eye for details and a sharp mind that could analyze almost anything. So as he watched the shinobi fight, he learned. He saw how they moved in combat, how they used their bodies to put maximum power into their attacks, how they aimed for the points that would do the most damage, how they held themselves when they threw different weapons, how they held and moved theirs swords, and what basic principles allowed the different techniques to work. He also memorized handsigns, picking the jutsu apart to see how they worked. Just because he intended to be a genjutsu- and seal-master didn't mean he had to be helpless if he for whatever reason was not able to use either.

However, with his careful observation, he was slowly gaining another ability that he himself did not know about, but would perfect in the following months and years. From looking how people moved, how they held themselves and to a certain degree how their chakra flowed, his ability as a sensor was weak, but it was there, he would eventually be able to evaluate a person's talent, determining what training would be best from minutes of observation. But that would not come until after he left Konoha.

But even though he did so much, he neither neglected his seal-work nor his genjutsu. It was amazing just how much knowledge the library contained, and even though little of it was actual techniques, it turned out that non-clan shinobi and even a few clan-shinobi had left scrolls about different theories and rules on all types of jutsu, including a few scrolls on the finer workings of fuinjutsu written by Minato Namikaze himself, in the library for public viewing. Of course Naruto was not foolish enough to take anything he read at face-value, and always made sure he was not working with some absurd theory before incorporating it into his work. His understanding of seals was now on a level where even Minato and Jiraiya themselves would be pressed to find a rule that Naruto didn't know. Of course, when it came to practical application and the creation of seals, they were light-years ahead of Naruto, but he now knew enough that he could soon start with seal-crafting, and although he knew enough to start with small, low-power seals to avoid blowing himself up on accident, he had a few ideas that he had developed when he was crippled.

His first idea would be basic, but if it worked, it could revolutionize the ninja-world. It would be twelve seals, located on basically random locations on the body. What made them special were that they would be the equal to the twelve handsigns, meaning that a shinobi simply had to charge the seals he wanted to with chakra, and he could use any jutsu while having both hands free to fight enemies and give them no warning he was about to blast them with something.

The second idea was built on the first one. If it was possible to use seals as handsigns, and Naruto was sure it was possible, then why not put an entire seal-sequence into a seal, allowing the user to activate a jutsu with just sending the necessary amount of chakra into the seal, which would take less than a second compared to maybe even twenty depending on the length of the sequence and the skill and speed of the caster? Perhaps even some additional seals to hide the sequence-seal when not used, so that someone knowledgeable with seals could not read the jutsu by simply seeing the seal when inactive.

On the field of genjutsu, Naruto had managed to complete and seallessly activate it. It was not as strong or draining as _Zekkou Sekai_, nor was it as intricate with the hallucinations it caused, but it wasn't supposed to be. _Mekura_ was not designed to be flashy, or give it's victim a false world to live in. It had one simple purpose; the user would not be noticed. When used, all others simply didn't realize he was there. They would subconsciously walk around him to avoid bumping into him, but they would not realize why they did it or even that they did it. Even better, not only was the user unnoticeable, but so were indications that he was there. To give an example, they wouldn't just overlook him, but footprints made by him on a muddy road. Of course it wasn't perfect. Assuming he activated a security-system that raised an alarm, the people would notice the alarm and realize there was something wrong. Although they would not directly see him, at that point they would assume there was a genjutsu and dispel it. Also, if he slapped someone, they would feel it and again know he was there, even if they couldn't immediately locate him. So it couldn't be used for assassination, or at least he'd need a different trick to escape the crime-scene. Still, it was invaluable when walking around the village without the ANBU on his heels, although he didn't dare enter clan-compounds or the Hokage's tower with it.

His efforts to cast genjutsu using a catalyst other than sight were currently not going so well, but he knew it would take time.

By now, his bones had healed, thanks to the blond woman with the big chest that regularly checked on him in the hospital, but to his frustration, the nerves had apparently been damaged and he could barely move his arm from the elbow down, nor could he channel any chakra through it.

Though on the bright side, he had made a few friends on his wanderings through the village. Granted, they were a bit unusual, but he preferred their company to that of other humans. He was slowly getting sick of all the pitiful looks.

-0-

_Flashback_

It was one of Naruto's first walks, few days before he'd stumble onto the training-ground. He didn't really have any set destination, as he didn't feel like going to the library today, so he more or less just walked where his feet led him, simply wanting to get as far away from his family as he currently could. Eventually, when he walked into a dead end, he decided it was time for a break. He looked around, and finding a bakery, he bought himself a small loaf of bread. It wasn't much, but Naruto had not taken his wallet and was limited to a bit of spare-change in his pocket, and that bread was not only the cheapest thing, it was really the only thing he could currently afford.

So he sat down on a crate that was placed nearby, right at the entrance of that dead end he had walked into a few minutes earlier, nibbling on the sweetened bread while going over different ideas for his genjutsu and fuinjutsu.

His train of thought was interrupted by a squeaking noise coming from his right, from the dead end. Alarmed he looked, but there was nothing there. He was just about to try and cancel a genjutsu when he heard another squeak. He looked down, and found a rat, gray with a white spot between its eyes looking at him, more precisely the bread in his hand, nose twitching.

Naruto tilted his head. Unlike many others, he wasn't afraid of rats. Or spiders, or cockroaches for that matter. He didn't understand why his family's faces scrunched in disgust when they saw the brown insects, or why Natsuki would start screaming when she saw one. They were insects, or arachnids, but that was beside the point. They were harmless, most of them anyways, and there was no reason to panic. And how come people screamed at cockroaches, but went all ooh and aah when they spotted a butterfly, a ladybug or a firefly? And why was a rat gross, but a mouse was cute? There wasn't that much of a difference.

Naruto turned to the rat. It quickly ran backwards, but after a minute, it carefully peaked out of its hiding spot and inched towards him, twitching nose ahead. Naruto smiled. Somehow, he felt a bit related to that rodent. He was in the family, but he was not really a part of it, just like this rat was there in the great family of Konoha, as the villagers sometimes had the gall to call it, yet it was not really wanted. An odd sense of comradeship rose in Naruto, something he had never felt before. Maybe it was because this rat was not a human. There were no expectations, so there was no way to be betrayed.

Naruto looked at the rat, then at his bread, before holding onto it with his teeth, needing his only good hand to hold the in place while he tore a piece out. He set the bread on his lap, took the piece in his hand and held it to the rat. "Here."

The rat seemed, like all wild animals, distrusting at first, but eventually hunger won out and it started gnawing on the bread, Naruto letting it go to ensure his fingers wouldn't accidentally become part of the menu. After it and Naruto had finished, the rat ran away.

However, when Naruto wandered the streets the next day even though he walked a completely different route, when he sat down with a bit of food to take a break, there was a rat with a white spot between the eyes looking at him, this time with two others. Naruto sweat-dropped. "Seriously. Okay Shiro," he decided to call the rat that because of it's white spot "let's make this clear, okay? I don't mind if I share food with you and a few friend of yours, but I'm not going to become your family's main food-supplier, are we clear?" He knew just how fast a rat-population could grow. The rat didn't react, still looking at the food, although if Naruto didn't know better, he'd say it was trying to look cute. Naruto sighed and tossed him his share.

It went on like this, Naruto eventually resorting to taking food out of the compound with him to share with his new friends. At least the rat seemed to somewhat understand him, as while the numbers of rats changed every day, there were never more than seven. However, it seemed he was attracting other omnivores, as after the first weeks, he had fallen into a routine of reading in the library or watching training, sharing lunch with his new friends, then doing the thing he had not done before lunch, either the library or observation, depending on what day it was and who was training when, when he walked to a quiet place where he and the rats could eat in peace, not only did four rats crawl out of the bushes, but three crows, or maybe they were ravens, landed in front of his feet.

Naruto blinked. What was this about? But the rats didn't seem to mind, as Shiro and the others had barely looked up when they came. Naruto looked at what he brought this time, slices of apple. He looked at the animals. "I have no idea what's going on here, and I don't really care, but I don't want to be caught in any fighting, so you split your share between yourselves peacefully." In the back of his mind, he was starting to wonder if his brain had taken any damage when he got zapped. Here he was, sitting on a rock in the outskirts of the forest surrounding the training-ground, talking to animals while putting a plastic plate he had bought for that purpose full of fruit on the ground and watching them tear into it.

Naruto had shrugged it off and just accepted that he'd be feeding the birds together with the rodents from now on. It wasn't that surprising that when a new and easy source of food made itself available, the scavengers would come flocking, although he decided to draw a line if stray cats and dogs started following him. Thankfully though, that didn't happen, and Naruto found that he actually relaxed in the company of his furry and feathered friends.

_End of Flashback_

-0-

Naruto eventually realized that he liked his lunches with the animals more than his dinners with the family. Those had been extremely awkward, as both Minato and Kushina had tried to start a conversation with him, only to realize they had nothing to really talk about, as they knew nothing of his hobbies, of what he liked to do. They knew he spent time reading, and recently heard he seemed to be getting along with birds, but there were few topics of discussion they could share with him.

To make matters worse, Natsuki was being a worse brat than usual, so Minato and Kushina had little choice but to focus more and more attention on her to keep her out of trouble than on their son, who apparently didn't want it and spent more time outside than with them, so within two to three months, things had slowly returned to how they'd been before, Naruto's _Mekura_ helping a bit, although he used if very sparsely on his parents. Natsuki had been under it practically nonstop since the day Naruto had completed it. Minato and Kushina did give him more attention than before, and tried to make up with him at least three times a week, and although Naruto didn't like it, he felt that he was slowly getting, he couldn't call it forgiving, but he was more tolerant of them, a part of him apparently still wanting to trust his parents, who really did make an effort.

-0-

Naruto had gone to bed in a good mood, his arm seemed to be getting better, as he had managed to grab a plastic cup with it and drink. Granted, the entire thing took almost half a minute, but Naruto saw it as a good sign. He had known that progress would be slow, admittedly he hadn't thought it'd take this long, and any progress was better than no progress, as it showed he was on the road to recovery.

Looking back, this entire mess had not only been bad for Naruto, as without it, not only would he be not even close to his current level with seals, as the library's knowledge would have been beyond his grasp, but he would also never have thought of a number of ideas he had come up with that would make things easier for those who had lost limbs, whether arms, hands or just fingers. Granted, he hadn't managed to actually complete those ideas, but he had a concept, which meant by his still childlike logic that the lion's share of the work was done. He didn't know that Minato had needed four years after coming up with the concept of the _Hiraishin_ to work out all the details and actually complete it.

But still, Naruto fell asleep with a content smile, dreaming of what he would do once he was finally back to normal.

He had no idea that what would follow his next awakening would change his life forever.  
_

Chapter 5 is done. I'm not completely happy with it. It's the longest yet, and yet it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it. Most of it is third person speech, and while it helps getting the story along and I deem it important, there is too little dialogue, which really fleshes the characters out, for me to call this a really good chapter. Still, I made progress, and the next chapters will be better.

Next chapter, the Devil's Arm, that currently only me and one other person whose name I will not give so that he won't be pestered to give away the secret know the abilities of, will finally come next chapter. That will probably also be the chapter Naruto leaves. Also, I didn't get as far as I'd hoped, so the explanation about what happens when Natsuki sleeps with him will definitely come next chapter. Sorry.

A short explanation: First, Naruto is not having saint-like patience with his family, he simply decided that instead of yelling, shouting, breaking things or playing pranks, which would not only make him like Natsuki and the image of him that has formed in his parents' mind, he ignores them, wanting as little to do with them as possible. He knows he can't live alone yet, as his parents wouldn't allow it and keep him under constant supervision even if they did, which he doesn't want, so he lives at their house, but simply ignores them unless there is no other option. That way, Kushina and Minato are worried, but after they had him shadowed for a week, they have the feeling that they basically know what's going on, and knowing from both the shinobi that notice him watching them train and the librarians, they know how he spends the majority of his day, so they know he's not doing anything crazy, dangerous or Orochimaru-ish. They think he simply needs a bit of time to deal with everything, and some time alone, and realized from his behavior that he currently wants to be left alone. They still try and make up for their mistakes, but they realized that forcing themselves on him would have the opposite effect.

And after he leaves Konoha, Naruto will make a name for himself, a few actually, but he makes sure nobody knows or can identify him as Naruto. He doesn't want to make the job easier for whoever his family sends out to find him.

As to why Naruto's family hasn't lost any reputation, while Konoha knows that Naruto is crippled, they don't know how it happened. They heard it was an accident with Minato's seals, so they're assuming Naruto had, accidentally or not, went somewhere he wasn't supposed to go and received divine punishment. And Tsunade cares for Naruto as a patient, meaning she calls him twice a week for a checkup, but doesn't really spend any free time with him.

IMPORTANT: I've gotten quite a bit of criticism on this story, and while I don't mind critics, flamers are different, it did get me thinking. So, to ask for public opinion, I've set up a poll on whether or not I should continue this story. It's on my profile, so please give me your opinion. Thank you.

Now onto the genjutsu I created.

_Mekura_ (Blindness/Illiteracy/Ignorance)  
Rank: B  
Range: Short (0-5m), Middle (5-10m), Long (10m+)  
Type: Support  
This genjutsu was invented by Naruto. While most genjutsu create hallucinations or, if complex enough, an entire fake world, this one does the opposite. The victim still sees the world as it really is, which means even someone with photographic memory would not be able to tell he was in a genjutsu because some absolutely minor detail is wrong, but instead, all traces that indicate the presence of something, generally the user. This includes not only his body, but also things like sounds he makes, any smell he emits, minor physical contact, up to a certain point things he moves, for example doors, and even the presence a experienced shinobi can instinctively detect. However, if the user were to do something that cannot be easily ignored, for example attacking the victim or smashing or stealing something precious to the victim, the genjutsu would not cover that, and the victim would immediately realize something was wrong, although the genjutsu would not automatically cancel itself. If multiple victims are trapped, the only one who would notice in the case of an attack would be the target of the attack, although the others would notice if the target dropped dead. Like with any normal genjutsu, disrupting one's chakra-flow or a loss of conscience will end it, although like many other subtle ones, it will not be dispelled when the victim is asleep. This genjutsu will become one of the ones most often used by Naruto.

Now, the Q&A

Q: Will Naruto hate his family? Will he ever forgive them?  
A: Yes, he will hate them, although he won't work towards his family's disruption or misery. He will dislike them greatly, but he will go on with life and simply not care what happens to them, as long as he doesn't have to spend time with them, something along the lines of 'I would never wish you ill, but I would read your obituary with great satisfaction'. Will he forgive? I haven't decided yet, but complete forgiveness is more than unlikely.

Q: This one will probably be asked next chapter. Why is Naruto so relaxed?  
A: He doesn't know his injury is permanent, Minato and Kushina haven't gathered the guts to tell him. Such things take a completely different kind of courage than facing an enemy. So Naruto believes it's just something that takes more time to heal, although him learning the truth next chapter will be part of the reason why he leaves.

Q: Is the Devil's Arm a replacement-limb?  
A: No, Naruto's arm is not and won't be amputated, only because of Tsunade's expertise. She actually used her own kinjutsu on Naruto's arm after removing the large patches of dead flesh to motivate those still living to replace those patches. It worked, but it did put additional strain on the arm that further weakened it. So the arm is there, it just doesn't really work, so he keeps it in a sash (?), just like Danzo keeps his right arm hidden while in public.

Q: Will Natsuki admit she lied?  
A: Not everything, but she will admit a few things, but only after Naruto has already left.

Q: Pairings? Updates?  
A: I haven't decided if and who I will pair with anyone, although I can already say that the only person from Konoha who I'd even consider would be Yakumo and maybe, this is a big maybe, Tenten. Affections from Hinata's side, while not only unlikely, would be one-sided, as Naruto, as you might have figured out yourselves, has some trust-issues. As for updates, I'm not updating on any kind of schedule. Updates will come when they come.

Also, thanks for all the good wishes for my hand, it healed nicely and you can barely tell there was ever something wrong.

Longest chapter so far, longest AN so far, I think I said enough, so

Please Review


	6. Birth of the Devil's Arm

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto  
_

Naruto's return from dreamland was not an easy one. He felt weak and drowsy, and it took him over a minute to even realize he was awake. What had alerted him was the pain that had come with every breath. His lungs were on fire, his limbs seemed to be filled with lead, and it felt like a hedgehog was starting a rampage inside of his head. His itching eyes told him that it was four in the morning, and everything hurt. What was going on?

The answer was simple, yet for a second, Naruto's mind simply refused to believe it. Natsuki, who in the past weeks made it clear, in those few moments he allowed her to notice him, that she hated Naruto's guts, was laying on his bed, beneath his blanket, one hand somehow having crawled into his the jacket of his sleep-wear, resting right above his stinging heart. How on earth had she overcome _Mekura_? He knew exactly that he had put her, and for a change his parents, under it just last evening! While he had used the version that faded by itself, it should have taken at least another day until they should become aware of Naruto's existence.

The blond boy gathered all his strength. "Natsuki, get out of my bed!" He hissed.

Natsuki blinked, looked up, and her face turned into a grimace. "What are _you_ doing here?" She hissed back.

Naruto took a calming breath. "In case you haven't noticed, this is my room."

Natsuki looked around, noticed this to be true, blew Naruto a raspberry, and bolted out of the room, eager to get some space between the two of them.

Naruto sat in his bed, wondering how long he'd have to bear these visits from Natsuki that only brought him pain. Suddenly he felt a burning sensation in his throat, he felt as if he had to throw up. He left his bed and staggered towards the bathroom connected to his room. He made it to the sink before he collapsed in a fit of coughs. Were it not for the sound-blocking seals that his father had installed on all bathrooms to ensure privacy, Naruto was certain half of Konoha would have been shaken up by his newest plague.

After a few minutes, the fit ended. "What was that?" he asked himself, before his gaze was drawn to his working hand. It was red with blood.

-0-

Naruto stared at his bloody hand. There, sticking to his fingers, was the proof of what he had told his parents all the time, that Natsuki's presence was harmful to him. But only now did he truly realize how harmful. 'This can't go on.' Naruto told himself 'Either Natsuki is banned from my room... or I have to leave. It is getting worse, and I am certain that unless something happens immediately, I will die.'

Naruto left his room and headed towards his parents. With evidence like this, they had to do something, or else he would lose what little faith in them was left, and pack his bags for good. As it turned out, his parents were still caught in _Mekura_, giving Naruto opportunity to do something that he could normally never do; he could eavesdrop on his parents without them noticing.

At first he had planned to simply cancel the jutsu, but...

"We have to tell Naruto. It's just getting worse the longer we take, and I feel like breaking down every time I see him." Kushina stated.

Naruto froze, and focused all his attention to his ears. This seemed serious.

-0-

Minato sighed. "You're right, but it's just not that easy. Every time I want to tell him, my throat tightens up. It's like my tongue just fails me, or the words themselves don't want to be spoken."

Kushina laughed joylessly. "How poetic we are when it comes to excusing how pathetic we are."

Minato looked at his wife. "He has a right to know, and Tsunade is right when she says that waiting will only make it worse, but how, that's the great question. Honestly, I wish I could just order Tsunade to do it, she has experience in those kind of things, and aren't usually doctors the ones who deliver such news?"

A shrug answered him. "Usually. But can you blame her for dropping that duty on us?"

Now Minato was the one joylessly laughing. "As much as I'd like to, no. This is hell. I've actually been practicing my confession to Naruto for weeks, but it just won't come out when I want it to."

Kushina nodded. "I know. I did too, but when I see the hope in his eyes, I just can't bring myself to crush that."

Minato sighed again. "It's much harder than initially expected. It's not like I can just walk up to Naruto and say 'Hello son, I forgot to tell you something. Remember when you fried your arm on the gate? Well, that killed off most of your nerves and shattered your chakra-paths, so you'll never be a shinobi, or even able to use your arm again. My bad.' How do you tell your child that his lifetime-dream can never become real because you forgot him on his own birthday?"

Had Naruto been holding something, he would have dropped it.

-0-

Naruto's eyes widened. Shivering, he looked at his left arm, which was lifelessly hanging in it's sash. Suddenly everything made sense. His parents' behavior, the pitying looks, the odd tolerance the shinobi had shown when he had watched them train, even the most dangerous and secret jutsu. They had known! Everyone had known! EVERYONE HAD KNOWN THAT HIS ARM WOULD NEVER HEALED AND NOBODY TOLD HIM!

Naruto had to get out of here, or he would go insane. Already the urge to smash things was getting unbearable. He ran out of the compound, _Mekura_ ensuring that his father ignored the small impulse of the gate opening and closing, as it wasn't an alarm, but merely a notification. His parents had in the meantime decided that the news would be delivered on their next planned holiday aka day off, which was in three weeks, and slowly turned to different topics.

Naruto didn't care what else his parents had to say, he needed to be alone right now.

-0-

Minato frowned. He had just gotten a really bad vibe, but he couldn't imagine why. He checked the impulses of his seals, having learned from the birthday-catastrophe to trust his gut more than his head in such situations, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. So whatever it was, it wasn't in the compound. Probably in his office, printed on deceivingly white, innocent-looking paper.

The chunin-exams were coming up in Kumo, and he had to organize everything, seeing that Kumo was not an allied village, the work was piling. He had no idea if he would be home before tomorrow evening. "Kushina, I'm a bit worried. I won't be here until tomorrow evening at the earliest, and you..."

Kushina nodded. "I have border-patrol for the next few days, as I am still an active shinobi. I know. But Minato, I trust your sealwork, and don't forget, we have both been gone for a few days before, and they were just fine. They'll call friends over, have lots of fun, and make a mess out of the house. And in an emergency, there are at least three ANBU in the nearby outpost at all times. Not to mention that our friends and fellow clan-heads always send some poor soul to make sure the children don't blow up the house while without parental supervision." Her voice grew quieter "And I don't think either of our children will mind some time for themselves."

Minato nodded, a bitter taste in his mouth. The situation with Naruto was getting worse for them every day, when they saw him trying to work with an arm that would never work again. He felt pathetic. He had handled with the Kyuubi and the Shinigami, but in front of his own son, everything that he prided himself in, his silver tongue, his wits, his charisma and confidence just evaporated. He couldn't recall a moment in his life where he had felt as helpless as when he stood before his son and tried to explain the true extent of what had happened to the boy. He only hoped that Naruto would not learn of his crippling from anyone but his parents.

As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, you might get it. The gods had granted Minato's wish, but not in the way he had wanted.

-0-

Naruto was storming away. He had no goal in mind, he just had to get away. Fortunately, the ANBU watching this sector had, somewhat accidentally, been caught in one of his temporary _Mekura_ two days ago, so for another hour, he was safe from their eyes, and seeing that it wasn't even 5 AM yet, the streets were practically deserted.

Naruto left the main streets, where a few early risers, like bakers, were already up and about, and instead went into the darker alleys, where he was alone except for his nonhuman friends, who could feel his mood and decided to give Naruto some space. It wasn't time for food yet anyways.

Unknown to Naruto, he was approaching a sector of Konoha that nobody had entered since the Kyuubi-attack. It wasn't that they didn't want to, but in this sector, the Kyuubi's youki had gathered and seemingly gained a mind of its own, leaching onto any living being that entered it and draining it dry, even converting the victim's flesh and bones into energy, leaving nothing behind but agonized cries that stopped abruptly. Of course the youki's territory had been fenced, but as fate would have it, the part of the fence on the side Naruto was approaching from had been destroyed, and since nobody ever went even close to that sector, nobody had found out and repaired it.

Naruto was blissfully ignorant of what trouble he was in as he walked through the fence's remains and into what had been termed 'the Dead Zone', still upset about what he had learned. While he had lost his faith in his parents, this newest betrayal had stung deeply. 'Why am I even surprised?' He asked himself, before going vocal.

"I'm a fucking cripple and nobody tells me! Now it all makes sense. Why should I waste my time training Naruto swordsmanship, he won't be able to wield one anyways. Why teach Naruto jutsu, it's not like he'll be able to use them. Why bother training him in anything, it's not like he'll ever be a shinobi! Let him watch, it's not like he'll ever be able to perform anything he sees!"

He kicked an empty can, making it fly through a window twenty feet away. Apparently, sand had filled the thing, as the glass shattered. Naruto didn't care. He broke down, hysteric sobs shaking his body. It was all coming down around him. His world was crumbling, and there was nothing he could do. His arm was gone for good, and he had learned that Tsunade was considered the greatest medic of all times, if she couldn't fix it, and apparently she had been the one to proclaim that it couldn't be fixed, then there was no hope.

"It's not fair." Naruto muttered, bitter tears running down his cheeks. Why always on him. What heinous act had he committed to deserve this? Why couldn't the gods torment someone else, just for a change? "Why me? Why does everything bad have to happen to me?"

Naruto was not the type for brooding and self-pity, but right now, it was just too much. So entranced by his misery, Naruto did not even notice the red mist that had formed behind him, seeping out of all cracks, forming into a almost solid wave of red.

-0-

The youki was not really intelligent, nor did it have any real instincts. But with it's time spent hunting for anything that foolishly approached, it had learned to not simply latch itself onto the pray while spread out too thinly, or else the sustenance could slip free and escape. Also, as many creatures had an instinct that warned of rapidly approaching objects, the youki had developed a simple tactic. First it would gather, then slowly and carefully approach and glue itself to the body without actually doing anything. Once the prey was 'secured', the bulk of the youki would shoot forward, engulfing the unfortunate victim, drain it of all chakra, before beginning to turn the rest into something that would further support the youki as a whole.

Following it's tactic, tiny strands of youki had attached themselves to the newest prey, a much larger one than youki usually captured, and prepared the rush. By the time the creature noticed, it would be far too late. NOW!

The red wave branded against the body, working its way from the bottom of the backside towards the head. The prey still hadn't noticed anything, as its eyes were shut. However, it also didn't seem to feel anything. If such a complicated emotion as confusion could be felt by the youki, this would be it. However, it spread, covering the entire body.

Suddenly it released the creature, as if burned. The youki had found that not only was this organism resistant to youki, but it was also flooded with itself. The youki had sensed itself inside of the organism, and released it, deeming it friendly.

Naruto hadn't even noticed just how close to death he had just come, although he felt a burning sensation, he accredited it to his grief. By the time he opened his eyes, the mass had dispersed.

-0-

Naruto had enough of this. He had cried his heart out, and it had felt good, but enough was enough. He was not an emo, nor a brooder. He had received a blow that he hadn't expected, it was time to get back on his feet. His left arm was screwed for the foreseeable future. Fine, he had come this far without it, he'd go further without it. His twelve-seal-set was almost complete, it just needed some more fleshing out and tests. With them, he would be able to erase his jutsu-difficulties, not that he didn't plan on learning one-handed seals anyways. As for taijutsu, there was always a way, he just had to find it!

Still, this newest betrayal had hit him hard. He hadn't noticed it, but he had been starting to let his parents back into his heart, which made it all the more painful. Naruto realized that this was the first time since his birthday that he was actually angry with his parents. He had been displeased and annoyed, but never truly angry. He had allowed his parents to hurt him again.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Rest assured, it won't happen again." Naruto muttered to himself. To him, his blood-relatives would from now on be nothing more than landlords and and unwanted roommates, and if turned out that he couldn't heal his arm here, or if it healed, he was out of here.

He didn't have to worry about time. For one thing, he hadn't even entered the academy, and from his fa... Minato Namikaze's words, he wouldn't be entering it, so there was no hurry to leave. He would be a civilian, and civilians had the right to leave whenever they dang well pleased. They couldn't make him a missing-nin, as he had never served Konoha, and thus could not desert it. The only potential problem were the clan-laws.

Every clan-member had the right to leave and go elsewhere without leaving the clan as long as they weren't bound otherwise, like with shinobi-duties. That was the reason the Hyuuga made such generous use of the _Kagonotori no juin_, or caged bird seal. If they didn't, any Hyuuga that was declared a servant would pack his bag and be gone. However, only the clan-head could officially release one from the clan, meaning that a Hyuuga who left was still a Hyuuga, and a Namikaze who left was still a Namikaze. If they made it clear that they had no intention of returning to the clan, the clan still had the right to call them into service, meaning that for a set period of time, or until a certain number of missions were completed, the 'free' clan-member had to return and serve the clan and the village the clan was allied with. On the upside, once that was done, if the person demanded to be released from the clan, the head had no option but to do so. The man had done his duty, and there was nothing more they could demand from him. Even better, such people could leave the village without any repercussions as long as they hadn't committed a crime, as they were essentially hired on a mercenary-basis. The only catch for the clan was that the order to return had to be delivered personally. That didn't mean a clan-member had to do it, but the order had to be given in written form, and the one who delivered had to give it directly to the one it was addressed to. However, once the courier had located the recipient and said recipient realized what it was about, he could not run away, block the courier or ignore the order. If they found and identified him and had the letter, then the man or woman would have to serve their time.

And while the idea of cutting all ties with his relatives sounded sweet, Naruto had no intention of wasting four years of his life, as he doubted they'd give him the B-,A- and S-ranked missions to shorten the time, serving Konoha. So once Naruto was out of Konoha, he would drop off of the face of the earth. He already had gathered a few materials, namely jutsu that could not be dispelled and would change his appearance. And it was his stupid sister of all people who had given him the idea!

She had screwed up a _henge_ in the way that she actually transformed into what she wanted, only that the result hadn't been good for her. She had spat blood for five minutes, and anyone without the Kyuubi would have likely been screwed up for good, but Naruto had analyzed what she had done, how she had done it, and what one should do to minimize the damage on the body. It was far from perfect, but he could now permanently change the color of his eyes and hair, and slight alterations on his skin.

Still, he needed to find an outlet for his remaining anger. He looked around, and gave the wall a fairly powerful kick. "What the hell?" He called as he jumped back.

Half the wall had collapsed. Naruto looked around, and for the first time realized something. "Where the hell am I?"

He was in a place he had never seen before. The place was obviously abandoned. The buildings looked damaged, some had collapsed, some looked like they had been crushed by something, and nowhere even a trace of life could be found. Naruto knew he hadn't left Konoha, but it sure seemed like it. He looked around, and saw the monument. At least he could orientate himself now. Still, this place was dangerous. He looked through the newly-made hole in the wall... and blinked. The falling fragments had smashed through what appeared to be a hidden door. Naruto knew he should be leaving, but his curiosity was stronger. He carefully entered the building, prepared to jump out of the way the moment anything rumbled, but nothing came. He noticed that the walls and ceiling were supported by steel beams, meaning that it was fairly unlikely that the whole thing would simply collapse. So he carefully approached the hole in the ground.

His suspicion had been right, it led to a set of stairs. Naruto had to climb a bit to avoid the rubble, but he could advance.

"Who would build something like this?" Naruto muttered. "What is it? A deserted ANBU-base? Maybe this was once a ROOT-station, before the Sandaime closed that branch? Rats, I can't even see my own hands, if I only had some light."

The next moment, he nearly had a heart-attack and jumped up in shock. Torches had lit up, lighting the way to the bottom of the stairs roughly twenty feet down in a ghostly blue light. Naruto looked around nervously. "Hello? Is anybody there?" No answer. "Uargh, it's so bright, turn off the torches!" Nothing. "It's obviously not voice-activated. What else could it be?"

He looked around, and noticed that there were two seals above the step he had just rested his foot on. Apparently they were a detection-barrier, sending a thread of chakra between them, and lighting the torches when interrupted. Good. "Shit. What if this place is booby-trapped? HELLO? I'M LOST!"

Nothing. Naruto decided to proceed, with extreme caution. And indeed, he found no less than seven traps, ranging from more seal-threads over fake stairs to a section of hallway behind the stairs where he had to paint a certain array on a piece of paper before the ceiling came down and crushed him. Finally, he was standing in a chamber, apparently the only chamber, as there were no further paths. Again burning torches lined the walls, sending their flickering light and giving everything a creepy feeling.

The room itself was a disappointment for any treasure-hunter. There was a stone basin let into the floor in front of him, not big enough for Naruto, but it would be enough to bathe an infant or wash his face. The far wall had a desk, a drawer packed with folders, and a few broken clipboards that looked as if someone had thrown them on the floor next to a number of odd machines that Naruto could make no sense of. On his left side he saw a row of six long cages, each containing beds of varying sizes. The beds in the first two were adult-size, the next three growing smaller until the final cage, in which there were at least forty cribs. What was odd was that all were fastened with leather-straps, as if to keep them in bed. Perhaps this had been a station for insane ninja?

The wall on the right on the other hand gained Naruto's attention. It was filled with jars containing a liquid that in this light looked greenish. All jars were made of glass, the same size and labeled. It was also the wall closest to the basin. Naruto approached, looked if there were any traps. Seeing none, he grabbed the closest jar and held it to his face, trying to decipher the writing.

"Who wrote this, a chimpanzee? Even Natsuki doesn't write this bad. Let's see, KU... RA... I have no idea what that's supposed to be... K+? What's that supposed to OUCH!"

The glass had become brittle with the years of exposure, and when Naruto tightened his grip, it shattered. A few splinters pierced into his flesh while the liquid splashed everywhere. "Uargh, yuck! I think I swallowed some. Eew. Tastes worse than the medicine for my arm, I didn't think it was possible." He looked around for something to rinse his mouth with, but came up empty. He dropped the broken glass and looked at his palm. It wasn't too bad, only one of the glass-fragments had pierced into his flesh, and enough was sticking out for Naruto to carefully grab it with his teeth and pull it out. It bled a bit, but otherwise it seemed fine. He'd get it disinfected later.

He looked around and saw that one of the jars was not standing in the cabinet like the others, but on the desk. More careful this time, Naruto approached, not touching it. He read the label, and it was a different one. He frowned to make out the kanji. "Accelerated... whoever wrote this needs lessons, badly. Wait, is that supposed to mean regeneration? Accelerated regeneration? Then maybe the other thing wasn't Kura, but cure, and the name of some disease. Is this stuff" He looked at the jars "medicine?" His eyes wandered to the bottle of accelerated regeneration, to the basin, and back again.

Then he carefully picked the jar up, carefully as if it was a little bird, and carried it to the basin. He pulled off the lid, and poured it into the basin. "Medicine works best when directly applied where it's supposed to work, so..." He looked around, before picking up a shard of glass and making a shallow cut on the back of his useless left hand that was still hanging in it's sash. Then he lifted it up and let it soak in the liquid, prepared to pull it out on a moment's notice if something bad happened. After all, it was not like his arm could get much worse. Still, better safe than sorry, so he cut off the arm's circulation before letting it take a dip. If the stuff was really bad, he'd make it outside before collapsing, seeing that the traps were deactivated. Then he would most likely be found before anything horrible happened. Who knew, he might actually reach the hospital himself.

"Great Naruto, very optimistic." He scolded himself. Then he hissed. The pain wasn't unbearable, it was really like being disinfected with alcohol. It burned and stung, but one could grind his teeth and bear it. Still, Naruto was about to pull out his hand, when he noticed something. "Wait, am I hallucinating?"

He narrowed his eyes, blinking a tear of pain away, and had a closer look. "YES!" The cut was getting smaller! It was a slow process, so slow that one really had to focus to notice, but it seemed to be working!

In fact, Naruto felt the stinging pain wander up his arm, and had to grin despite the pain. Even though it was pain, Naruto had never had more feeling in that arm since he woke up in the hospital. The only reason for such feelings were that his nerves were healing, even if just a little bit. He looked at the jars again. If all of this was medicine...

And here a part of Naruto that had been practically removed by his life reared its head. In this moment, he was no longer the calm and collected prodigy. The minor and very painful success on his arm had made him giddy, and reduced him to what he physically was: a child with free pick in a toy-store.

"A lot helps a lot." Naruto muttered as he grabbed more and more jars, pouring a bit of everything into the basin without even looking at the in any case unreadable descriptions, a wide grin on his face. After this, he probably would never have to be afraid of getting sick again. Maybe he would even be immune to whatever it was Natsuki was doing to him!

Had he bothered to read, he would have noticed that the tags didn't have the names of medications on them, but other, quite familiar names, like _Akimichi, Nara, Uchiha, Senju, _or_ Inuzuka_.

What he had found was in reality one of Orochimaru's first laboratories, which he had abandoned long before he actually left Konoha, both because it was too small and ill-equipped for what he needed, not to mention that the experiment had all failed. At the time, Orochimaru had gathered genetic material from anyone he could find that had anything special, and used it to create a mixture that, so was the plan, could grant the abilities to other people who did not originally possess it. While he had been able to create the solution, all attempts to inject it into another person had failed. The solution did its job, but the body rejected the changes, causing death. Orochimaru had used younger and younger hosts, eventually resorting to building incubators and letting embryos absorb the liquid, but not even they were able to withstand the changes. When the last one died, Orochimaru had given it up. This was not the way to gain kekkei genkai, so it was of no use. Originally he had intended to destroy the place, but before he got the opportunity, he was deployed in war, so he had just removed all traces that indicated just who had been working here and left. Who cared if the lab was found, there was no trace of Orochimaru's presence, and everything left in it was useless anyways, he cared neither for the corpses, the anyways outdated equipment, nor for what was left of the solutions. If it was found, he would just have to lay low for a while. He had even left most of the traps deactivated, showing just how little he cared for it. Eventually, Orochimaru had forgotten the lab even existed, a new method of gaining kekkei genkai involving directly injecting the DNA into the embryo taking up his entire attention. After the Kyuubi had attacked, Orochimaru had written the lab off for good. If it still existed, all evidence would be eroded away by the youki-residue by the time anyone entered it.

Now, due to unique circumstances, Naruto's body was filled with youki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, which was flowing fairly docile through his system, as the goal it was supposed to do was not destruction of the carrier, but in fact toughening him, or, if you considered who it was supposed to be in, her. This youki had began to pool in the left arm, the one section of Naruto's body where his natural chakra-flow did not obstruct it. So when Naruto chose to make the cut there of all places, the youki was more than prepared to deal with the new arrival, integrating it into Naruto's system after deeming it beneficial.

However, the youki inside of Naruto was limited, and so was it's ability to incorporate or destroy foreign substances, more so since this was not the body of a jinchuuriki. In fact, it was nothing short of a miracle that the process of gaining the increased regeneration of a woman Orochimaru had located, but at the time been unable to collect had not killed Naruto, who was blissfully unaware of just how deep the shit he was about to jump into was.

-0-

Naruto looked at the basin. It was filled almost to the top with bluish-green liquid. Getting all of the jars had been a pain, since he had to move the desk and chair to reach the ones on the very top, and being careful not to drop any. But in the end, he had succeeded. The basin was filled with some liquid from every jar, and he had used one of the weird metal instruments to mix it thoroughly. His arm was still aching, but now he could actually move his index-finger a bit without the other three following suit. Soon he'd be better than ever.

He grabbed another shard of glass and made a deeper cut in his hand, this time cutting a bit up the arm, while being careful not to sever any veins or arteries. What good was super-healing and immunity against diseases if you bled out before it could activate?

Naruto looked into the turquoise liquid one last time. "With this, I'll be better than ever!" He called, while letting his hand slide beneath the surface. He smiled to himself. "I'll make the stupid arm move, and if it's the last thing I do!" Little did he know that the odds of it really being the last thing he'd do were so close to 100% that not even Tsunade would have made a bet on it.

It started with the burning he had already felt before, and for the span of roughly ten seconds, that was really all there was, a pain that was bearable, but getting stronger. Then...

"GUARG? Gurgle ARG-...!"

From one moment to the next, his arm exploded in a wave of agony equal to when his arm broke, then worse as it spread through his entire body. Naruto didn't even have the strength to cry out. He was twitching uncontrollably, foam bubbled out of his mouth and dampening the gurgles, his pupils had contracted to a point where one couldn't even see them. Blood ran from his nose and ears, and his skin had turned gray as ash. In the last moment before merciful darkness surrounded him, Naruto cursed himself for his stupidity.

-0-

One solution the youki had easily handled. Two had been a small effort, but no problem. However, this whirlpool of liquids that were never intended to be mixed to begin with overrun all defenses it could set up. The solution was slowly seeping up the arm, not only killing but literally shredding all cells it came in contact with. The host's entire body was wracked by seizures of protest at the invading source of painful death. In a jinchuuriki it would have been easy to fight the liquid off, but here the reinforcement of youki was cut off, meaning that what was currently in the body was all that was there to fight. And there was not enough to prevent doom. This youki was also slightly diluted, as it had not been released directly by the bijuu, but of a jinchuuriki. It was simply not designed to exist outside of a living organism.

One thing that one must understand about bijuu is that they are comprised solely of youki. There is no flesh, no bones, no internal organs. There is a center of will, generally located in the head, where the mind was, but no real brain or nerves. What kept the bijuu solid was the fact that even though the central mind was focused on one spot, every single flicker of youki was filled with a certain set of instincts, which tell it: 'Any energy-source that gets in contact is to be drained and all energy is to be absorbed and converted to youki unless ordered otherwise', 'youki with identical signature is not to be absorbed, but assisted and aided', and 'the continued existence of the collective has highest priority'. In a way, a bijuu was nothing more than an ant-hive of demonic energy. There was the central mind, the queen if you will, and the remaining youki was the workers and soldiers that absorbed nourishment for the creation of more youki, and for the simple youki, there was no hesitation when it had to separate from the main body to deal with an attacking force, even if the price was its own existence. However, for youki that for whatever reason was left behind, the last order changed. Since there was no central will, it gradually changed its main-goal to 'self-preservation until reuniting with the main-body is possible'.

These leftover youki was important for the biuu, and most of all for the Kyuubi, who had never been sealed away, since such youki gained intelligence and could at the time of reuniting very well be smarter and more knowledgeable than the main-body, in which case the information and intelligence was shared with the collective to ensure that the 'mind' was strengthened. When a bijuu was sealed inside a living host, it generally absorbed information from the host's brain to increase its own strength, a two-edged sword. The information was not mere knowledge and intelligence, but also personality up to a point. The bijuu could, if smart enough, purge itself from the tainted thoughts if they were deemed detrimental, but the process had to be done quickly and the knowledge absorbed from the host should not be used as the center of the personality, as an increasing number of sealings with an increasing number of personality-traits taken from the hosts would destabilize the personality, leading to madness, as in the Ichibi's case. Kyuubi, never having a host to milk for knowledge, had been reliant on these residue, which was good for its mental state, but held the problem that if the fragment was sealed away, a new mind could grow, which usually lead to a few problems with the little upstart, but that was a different story.

One must realize just how close youki of identical signature were to each other to understand what happened next. The youki in Naruto's body was getting overwhelmed, and knowing that it needed this host, did something unusual for youki-residue. It remembered. It remembered that not long ago, there had been contact with a large mass of itself, and used the unconscious host's tenketsu to send a part of itself outside, in the form of a wave carrying what was essentially a distress-signal.

The entire mass of youki in Konoha, spread out thinly over a space of more than a square-mile seemed to look up. A shiver went through red mist, and it rose from all corners to swarm towards one building like a giant swarm of red locusts rose up, as one poured down the formerly hidden passageway and slammed into the chamber with the force of a typhoon. Whatever happened to be around in that room was pulverized in the steadily increasing pressure of the youki, with the exceptions of Naruto, who was lifted into the air almost delicately, the youki having successfully identified the source of the S.O.S.-signal, and the liquid that had caused the mess, that was blown out of the crumbling basin and into the air, where the youki did a rudimentary analysis of the root of the problem. As the mass interacted with the youki inside of Naruto, the outside youki found something it had been looking for ever since it had been separated from Kyuubi, a host in which it could rest without dissolving it or being suppressed.

In fact, in Naruto the youki had found something that was not only rare, but something that had never existed before. Naruto was an anomaly, or rudely stated, a freak of nature.

A jinchuuriki was different from a normal human. For one thing, a pregnancy took a month more and was dangerous for the mother's life. Another, lesser known fact was that as soon as a jinchuuriki was created, no matter if infant or old man, a new function of the body started a new reaction. It had been labeled a 'surge'. The idea was simple. After the seal had solidified and everything settled, the bijuu sent waves of youki through the host's body. This was not even done out of evil intent, it was in fact to get the body used to the youki that would eventually be flowing through the body. The first times this happened it was extremely painful for the jinchuuriki, then the body slowly got used to the surges and eventually not even noticed when it happened. This was necessary to prevent the body from being torn apart if the youki had to be unleashed. If a jinchuuriki unleashed more chakra than their body could handle, it usually began with the skin tearing off, going on with damaging muscles and internal organs until the bones were crushed and if the flow was not stopped by then, the brain stood risk of being liquified.

The case of Naruto and Natsuki was truly unique. Not only was the creation of the jinchuuriki in an unusually early stage of life, directly after birth, but there was a twin. Not an identical twin, but close enough. What Natsuki had been doing, subconsciously, was that instead of biting her teeth together and bear with the surges until she couldn't feel them any longer, was that, by direct contact with her twin, she was able to reroute the youki from her into his system. While Natsuki had no idea what was going on, the subconscious knowledge of 'when it hurts, get to Naruto and all gets better' was anchored in her mind. And while Naruto's body was not the one the youki was supposed to be in, it's genetic makeup was similar enough to fool the youki, meaning that it worked how it would in a jinchuuriki, instead of simply destroying the body. Of course, Naruto was not a jinchuuriki, so he lacked what was really needed to handle the youki, namely the increased regeneration. Instead of healing instantly, the damage the youki caused to get the body used to it took days, sometimes weeks, to heal. However, as Naruto was an infant at the time and not an adult, his adaptability was at its peak, and his body slowly built up a resistance to the youki. At first there was no real problem with that, as the surges happened roughly every two months, giving Naruto enough time to heal before the next wave came. However as the years passed without Natsuki being any more resistant to the youki than at birth, the Kyuubi was losing patience and started sending more youki in shorter intervals. Naruto's body had eventually become unable to keep up with the increasing amount and slowly started breaking down, as the youki was still attacking his organs, which had eventually damaged the lungs, leading to the bloody cough.

Still, Naruto's body had a high resistance to youki, and since there was no seal, youki in his body was not restricted in any way. For the youki, it was as if it had found utopia. A host in which it could rest, in which it could easily gain sustenance, and in which it was not bound to the host's will. So the youki decided in that moment to stop its existence as a scavenger, and become a symbiont, as it felt the need to prevent its host's destruction. While most of the body was lined with internal chakra that would have been a bother, one limb was free of that, the left arm. Coincidentally, this arm was also flooded in solutions of unknown origin, a threat to the future host's life. However, now that the solutions could be easily destroyed on a whim, the youki grew curious. What was this? Could it be used for the advantage of the symbiosis? Perhaps a poison that they could accumulate and then produce as a weapon. What they found was even better. It was a mixture of DNA containing several clashing abilities. While this could not be spread through the host's body, it could be used on the limb that would house the youki.

So instead of simply wiping out the solutions, the ones in the body and outside of the body were absorbed by the left arm, which restructured itself to take them, and potentially more. The abilities gained in this way would not be accessible by the host, but the symbiont would be able to use them for the host. The only solutions the youki, which also restructured itself to be able to achieve symbiosis without damaging the precious host, forming a core inside of the arm, from which it could freely produce more youki should the need arise, did not remove from the host's system were the two that had initially been absorbed and already bound into the system of the body. As it fundamentally changed the arm, forming new chakra- and youki-coils that had bridge-like connections to the host's own system, but was not in any form reliant on it while repairing and optimizing the arm's structure. The host would have control of the limbs movements, most of the time anyways, but final say on everything regarding that arm still lied with the symbiont

-0-

Naruto groaned. His throat was bone-dry and he felt dizzy. He slowly pushed himself up and looked around. Where was he? Then he remembered. "Oh yeah, I found this room with the medicine."

His entire body ached. He cursed himself, despite the feeling that the words in his throat turned to sandpaper, while he beat his knuckles on his forehead. "Idiot! What stupid idiot would just mix unknown medicines together like that? You're behaving like Natsuki! What possessed you to do something so..." He froze. His gaze wandered to his knuckles. "No way." He whispered. He had been beating himself with BOTH hands!

He flexed his left arm a few times, and cried tears of joy when his arm obeyed, even if it felt a bit strange. But he immediately called himself to attention. Two times he had let himself be controlled by his emotions, and both had led to great amounts of pain. It was time to stop acting like a little kid, and start thinking like he had the past weeks, cold hard intelligence, nothing more.

His arm was healed. That was good. However, if he went and shouted that to the world, not only would that raise many questions, but it would also mean that all the people who had let him watch their training would stop doing so. Not that he had any plans of staying for very long, but if he kept his arm a secret, then the search-parties would be looking for a boy with a crippled arm, not for one with two working arms. He could sit in a restaurant with slightly altered appearance, and they would ignore him as they saw him eating with his left arm. No, that his arm worked was an information given out on a need-to-know-basis, and nobody needed to know. Also, it looked a bit different. The skin was a bit paler than before, and the nails were sharpened to short claws, similar to the ones that the members of the Inuzuka-clan had.

Then he looked around. He was certain that it had been a squeak that woke him up, so what was squeaking? The answer was simple. It came in the form of a rat with a white spot between its eyes. "Shiro!" Naruto called out in surprise. The rat had apparently followed his scent all the way down here. He stretched his right hand out, and the rat allowed him to pet it. "Hello you. How long was I out?"

The rat squeaked again, its tail slapping the ground three times. Naruto wasn't sure what to make of it, but he was hungry anyways. "What do you say we find some food? And water. I really need water." The rat seemed to nod gleefully.

"Then lets get out of here." Thankfully he had grabbed his wallet before he had left the house.

He left the chamber and the tunnel, before trying to find the way he had come from. "Let's see, the monument is there. From the position of the faces, the market should be that way." With that, he began to jog, Shiro sitting on his shoulder, nose twitching.

Something was different about the boy, the rat knew that. He was still the same nice person, but he smelled different, especially the arm. The arm smelled powerful, and as if it were a completely different being. Still, food was more important.

-0-

Twenty minutes after they left, a squad of ANBU appeared, looking around worried. "That youki has been here for years, it can't just evaporate from one minute to the next." One wearing an hawk-mask muttered.

Another, wearing a beaver-mask, looked at the third member, an owl-faced one. "Do you sense anything?"

Owl-mask shook his head. "There's no youki left, but the traces that it was here are too strong to get any other signal. There is no source of chakra or youki nearby, but the youki has been here so long that everything seems to emit residue. Even if an army of kages had stood right here ten seconds ago, I wouldn't be able to tell. I can hardly sense you over all the interference, and you're constantly emitting chakra."

The hawk-mask shook his head. "This is pointless. We're not going to find anything out right now. Let's return for now and leave the rest to search-parties."

Beaver-mask sighed. "Do you think the barrier will give any clues?"

"Not likely." Taka answered. "The youki-interference has always been a bother. If one gets into a one-mile radius of it, and the market is closer than that, all the guys from the barrier see is a big blur. Let's call it quits."

The others nodded, and a second later, they were gone. Fortunately it was a windy day, or they would have noticed some footprints leading out of a collapsed wall and towards the market.

-0-

Kushina was in the kitchen, making a late breakfast. It was nine in the morning, and she had returned from her border-patrol not even ten minutes ago, only to find Konoha in a state of chaos. The youki that was still lingering and attacking anything since the Kyuubi-attack had suddenly just disappeared right after she had left, and even now, three days later, nobody knew why. At first everyone believed Natsuki had done something, but that had not been the case. Poor Minato hadn't been home for a single second since that day, as the council held one meeting after the other, and this would likely go on all week. Although now finally some had gathered the courage to enter the 'Dead Zone', and came back reporting that the youki truly was gone. She herself would probably be called away again soon, but there should be enough time for breakfast. She looked up when she heard the door open.

-0-

Naruto sighed. He had seen Kushina's shoes, so he had to be polite, lest he be bugged even more. He had found out on the market that he had been out for three days. "I'm back!" He called.

Kushina's voice rang out of the kitchen, and Naruto, despite having no faith in his parents left, felt like he had been punched in the gut. "You were out? Anyways, breakfast will be ready in a minute, could you wake Natsuki?"

Naruto stood there, gaping in disbelief. He had been gone for three days, and they had not even noticed? _Mekura_ had worn off ages ago! This was the straw that broke the camel's back. His face twisted in anger- He would be out of here this very day, one way or the other. They obviously didn't care about him, so he wouldn't force his presence on those who obviously didn't need it. "I'm not hungry." He called back, before heading up to his room, a short stop to inform Natsuki of the meal waiting downstairs, calming himself. There was no need to get angry. Anger was counterproductive, and wasted on people one didn't care about. He had no time for irrational anger. He had to pack.

Naruto had no way of knowing that both of his parents had been gone these last three days, that Kushina hadn't even been here half an hour and had believed him to be still laying in bed, that there had been nobody but Natsuki and other kids in the house and any adult in the vicinity had kept all their focus on them, as some of them didn't even know that the Hokage had a son.

As such, Naruto was determined to be out of Konoha before sunrise, unless it turned out he had to fine-tune his genjutsu now that his arm worked. He already knew where he would go first.  
_

Chapter 6 is finished. Phew. I honestly had not planned on writing another chapter this soon, but circumstances have decided for me. Sorry for the long wait, but my mother decided that her and my definition of 'cleaning a room' were different. I still had some shit that I really didn't need stuffed under my bed in the same cases they had been in when we moved, and some more in the cellar, the German equivalent of a garage ^_^. So I had to unpack everything, decide what I want to keep and get rid of the rest, and no computer until all was done. Then tragedy struck, for details, check my profile. In apology for the long time between updates, I have made this chapter extra long.

There was still too little dialogue in this one, but there really was nobody to talk to. After Naruto leaves and travels for a while, I'll have to give him at least one human traveling-companion, so I can show more of Naruto's personality. Not immediately, but maybe after a few years on the road. I already have a few in mind, but do you have any suggestions?

So, the cat's out of the bag. I have described what happens to Naruto when Natsuki climbs into his bed, something I considered doing next chapter, but decided that I had let you wait long enough, and I have revealed the Devil's Arm, although you'll have to wait a bit longer to find out all it can do. The surge was important to explain Naruto's survival in the youki-cloud, why it would help him and why he was such an attractive host for the youki. They will be mentioned once more in probably the next chapter, when Naruto's parents find out what was going on between Naruto and Natsuki, since for her next surge, Natsuki won't have Naruto for a lightning-rod. And it will hurt!

As for the Devil's Arm, I'll give some explanations beforehand, to prevent some flames. To all those that say 'You've made Naruto godlike, he has all the special powers in Konoha and the ability to absorb more? WTF?' First, yes, he has all special abilities in Konoha, and yes, by absorbing DNA through the arm's skin, he will be able to gain even more. But haven't made him a god with that. You see, Naruto has no control over if and what ability his arm will use. So if he points his arm at an enemy, maybe he'll just stand there looking stupid, maybe his shadow will extend, maybe his hand will grow gigantic or maybe roots will break out of the soil to attack. As for doujutsu, the arm can grab Naruto's face and temporarily bestow one on one of Naruto's eyes, however as long as it does, the hand has to be on Naruto's face, so the arm can't be used for combat while the doujutsu is granted. Also, the arm will seek carriers of unknown abilities to gain them, which usually means he wants some blood, even if just a drop, on the skin, and seeing that it can move without Naruto's consent, that has a lot of potential for trouble. Can anyone imagine the arm telling Naruto to get a drop of blood from someone like Kakuzu? The arm will also seek something else, but you'll learn of that later, I can't give everything away, now can I? Anyways, Naruto will not become dependent on that arm, quite the opposite. He will deem it a too unreliable weapon and keep it in a sash and special bandages, only using it when Naruto absorbs something new, or he has absolutely no other choice. And before you ask, the youki has changed itself to better fit with Naruto, so it is no longer Kyuubi's youki. It is youki just as strong as the Kyuubi's, but it has basically formed its own, individual existence and has no interest in leaving the host, let alone merge with the Kyuubi. It won't be really smart, more like an animalistic, instinctive intelligence, although it will be able to, through their special connection, understand what Naruto tries to tell it. If it'll listen is a different story.

As for the disguise, some have noticed that I used the solid _henge_, but with a little twist. I mean, let's just think this through. Chakra or no chakra, such a transformation must be perfect and extremely complex, unless used for minimal changes. If one, in the fashion that Natsuki or canon-Naruto do, changing into people of different size or inanimate objects without properly taking into account all effects and solving the resulting problems, then they are going to screw their body up big-time, stretching or compressing their internal organs beyond what is healthy. So when Natsuki turned into someone (Minato) who was notable larger than her without altering her internal organs, she damaged them as they were suddenly stretched, and frankly not big enough to support the new body, leading to strong internal bleeding. Had the Kyuubi not intervened, Natsuki would have died. Naruto only uses it for minimal changes in hair-color, eye-color and the pigmentation of his skin. While he may perfect the solid _henge_, he will never use it without at least ten minutes of proper preparation to ensure that he won't kill himself with it, or on clones, who don't have internals that could be damaged. So it will be a jutsu used solely by Naruto, as neither his sister nor his parents really want to repeat Natsuki's experience, and even then solely for disguise or by clones.

Next chapter Naruto will leave Konoha, and the parents learn some uncomfortable truths. I'll probably manage to get far enough to show Naruto's first stop. Where do you think that will be?

Well, I've asked two questions, namely where you think Naruto will go and who might become a traveling-companion, as I want your opinion on those topics and my story as a whole. Please, tell me what you think of my story.

Looking at the poll, I think can safely say that we have a majority. I have never had this many people react to a poll, and I'm overwhelmed. You have given me your opinion, and I thank you for it. Your will shall be done.

Now onto the Q&A

Q: Is Orochimaru still in Konoha?  
A: No, he defected, just like in canon.

Q: Will there be time-skips?  
A: Maybe to Shippuuden, if I decide to go that way, but until then, only minor ones.

Q: What are Naruto's affinities?  
A: Naruto's condition is special. He will eventually be able to use all of them, but he will do so rarely leaning towards never. When using ninjutsu is unavoidable, he will use special jutsu he has developed himself, though I'm not going to give everything away. Just this much: Naruto will be using an energy that has much potential yet was never exploited in the canon and fillers.

Q: Will Naruto have a special weapon?  
A: Well, he won't be unarmed. But he won't have any legendary blade or something, the way I see him, he'd rather have a good, yet ordinary blade and make it special using seals.

Q: When will the story lighten up a bit?  
A: Probably within the next two or three chapters.

Q: When will there be fights?  
A: All in good time, real combat will come, but not in the next few chapters. This is still the learning/buildup-phase.

Well, that was all I had to say, so

Please Review


	7. Escaping, and the ones that didn't

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

* * *

As much as Naruto wanted to leave immediately, he found that a short wait was necessary. Something was wrong with his genjutsu. His control was slightly off, meaning that he had to go to the pond in the back of the garden and spend almost two hours to regain his abilities of water-walking, but his genjutsu was odd in a new way. It wasn't that he was unable to cast them, quite the opposite. The problem was that he couldn't really control them anymore. He could no longer calculate if a _Mekura_ lasted five minutes or two weeks. It felt as if all the requirements he had worked with, how much chakra is needed to make it last, how to dose it, had suddenly changed. To use a simple comparison, he had all the right ingredients, but the amounts were all wrong, resulting in screwed up cooking.

While this would not do, it had unintended side-effects, as when he used a color-altering genjutsu on a group of genin that happened to be practicing genjutsu, it took them three tries to break out.

"So, my genjutsu are a lot more potent than before, probably cost less chakra, but because of that, I'm overloading them. Fuck, this won't do. But still, the situation is salvageable. If I focus on _Mekura_ and other subtle ones, I should get them under control by evening, and be out of here by sunrise. I can test the others later, there's always a bandit somewhere." Naruto told himself.

And so he did.

-0-

Right now Naruto was walking up and down in 'his' room. He had sealed up everything he wanted to keep in a scroll, mainly food, his art-supplies, his sealwork and a few pieces of equipment. With a lot of work, he had gotten _Mekura_ back under control, though the rest of his jutsu would need to be fine-tuned all over again. His left arm was still in the sash, to keep up appearances.

He had everything he needed, as his family was asleep and under _Mekura_ that should last until tomorrow afternoon, so there was no problem on that front. The gates of Konoha would be closed, but Naruto had found out that in an hour, a shipment of goods would enter Konoha, meaning that he had a window of opportunity for his escape. All that kept him here, second thoughts were surprisingly not it, was the question if he should leave a message.

He didn't want to write a letter in which he expressed his anger, as that would only make the whole thing look like the thoughtless action of an upset child, and destroy the significance and meaning of his decision to leave. However, he didn't want to leave nothing behind and be considered kidnapped, as that would not only put anyone he would meet at risk of being accused of kidnapping, but it would make him look weak, not to mention that if he didn't leave a message, nobody would even consider that he left of his own will.

He needed something to deliver a message. It needed to be clear, short, stylish, and most of all, obvious. The best message was useless if nobody noticed it.

His throat was dry, so he sneaked downstairs to get a drink. On his way back he noticed a framed picture. It was the picture he had drawn and Natsuki had stolen and described as hers.

As he looked at it, his face split into a smile. "Perfect."

-0-

Leaving had proven easier than Naruto had originally feared. A quick _Mekura_ to the guards who were arguing with a merchant about something, probably taxes, a little bit of sneaking, crawling under the cart to get through the barely-opened gates, and then carefully sneaking away.

Of course he couldn't have known that the reason it was so easy was that in his training to relearn his genjutsu, some of his guinea-pigs just so happened to be the squad that was responsible for watching over the barrier that evening.

After a while, Naruto paused. It was odd. Now that he was so far away from Konoha that it could no longer be seen through the trees, he felt different. A bit of regret was there, but not much. What had truly changed was that for the first time ever, Naruto felt free.

Here, away from the civilization that he had known and detested most of his life, away from their looks, their expectations, their pity, from those that looked down on him, never seeing just who he was and what he could do, Naruto felt his heart soar. Freedom, sweet, sweet freedom. He understood why people were willing to fight and die for this feeling.

Still, now was not the time to get lost in thought. _Mekura_ would wear off tomorrow, and in three days, his parents should receive his message, and then send out forces. In a way, it was a last test for his parents. _Mekura_ would wear off tomorrow afternoon, and the day after, it would rain in the evening. If they hadn't sent out anyone by then, it would be impossible to find him.

Also, in three days of civilian pace, he would reach his destination. He had an improved _henge_ up, to ensure that nobody that wasn't looking for him would find him by coincidence, just in case some shinobi returned to Konoha using his route. Where he was going?

Well, Suna was an allied nation, meaning that this would be one of the places he would avoid in the near future. Maybe after things settled down a bit, but not yet.

Small nations like Taki and Kusa were on his list, but they too were allied with Konoha and would keep an eye out for him the first few months. Ame probably wouldn't care about Konoha, but Naruto had no intention of celebrating his freedom by walking into a dictatorship.

Kumo and Kiri were just too far away, he'd be caught on the road if Konoha checked.

Iwa was good, as who would expect the son of the Yondaime to travel there of all places, but if he could come up with the idea of hiding in a territory where one didn't initially look for him, then so could the Nara. Somebody would check the vicinity of Iwa, if only to make sure that he hadn't hidden behind the border to wait for them to give up.

And while there were many other countries, most had too little to do with the shinobi-world to be of real interest for Naruto, who wanted to expand on his knowledge, not let it rot.

So he would hide in the last place one would expect from someone who ran away from Konoha. To a place within the borders of Hi no Kuni, yet as far away as the moon.

-0-

The sudden disappearance of the Youki that had plagued Konoha for years, reminding them of what they had lost, had caused a panic. Everyone knew by now that youki didn't just vanish, so if it was gone, that could not be good. Was it just hiding, waiting until a large number of people were in its grasp before returning and killing them all? Had it wandered to different sectors of Konoha, where nobody was expecting it, in search of more prey?

As Hokage, it was Minato's duty to ease the worries of his people, and so from council-meetings over public speeches to personally joining the search-teams and equipping them with reverse-summon seals that they could use should they be attacked by the Youki, or simply trapped under debris of crumbling buildings. The Youki had weakened all structures and foundations, so collapses and, in the sewers, cave-ins where nothing unusual.

Kushina wanted to show her support of her husband and joined the search-squads, of course equipped with one of Minato's seals. She was the first that entered a building, after it had been declared structurally safe enough to enter, and was the first to enter the sewers, knowing that nothing was flowing through them, as that section of the sewers had been walled off to prevent the youki from moving that way.

They had parked Natsuki with the Akimichi, to make sure she stayed out of trouble and wasn't lonely. Sadly, when they departed, both had still been under Naruto's _Mekura_, which told them to ignore anything about Naruto, including his absence. By the time it wore off, both had too much work and pressure on them to spare either of their children a thought.

Almost a week would pass before the Namikaze-family would rejoin at their home. And that was too late.

-0-

Naruto looked up at the sky. The first drops had fallen a while ago, and now heaven had opened all floodgates. Naruto stood there, letting the rain wash over him, washing away the last connection to his family.

Naruto sighed and turned around. It was done. The last bridge was burned, the last chance given and wasted. He was officially alone, an orphan with no family.

Without looking back even once, he continued on his path, wherever it may lead him. His first destination was still half a day's journey away, and he needed someone to let him in, not that it would be too hard, seeing that he was quickly getting used to the new concentrations of chakra needed for his genjutsu. Naruto walked.

-0-

A week had passed, and the Namikaze-family could finally reunite. The entire village had been searched, every sensor had been on duty 24/7, and Konoha could finally be labeled safe. Not only that, but now they were finally able to make use of those sectors of the village that had been unusable in the past. All in all, Konoha had gained more ground on which it could build, helping the village hidden in the leaves to flourish even more.

Kushina was home first, and immediately started preparing a meal for the family, namely a huge pot of ramen.

Minato came next, completely exhausted from getting perhaps twelve hours of sleep during the entire week.

And finally, Natsuki was brought back from the Akimichi by a random member of the clan, who left after making sure that the girl had actually gone through the door of the compound.

Initially neither parent was too worried with Naruto, knowing that the boy usually had some watchers, and even in the cases where he gave them the slip for a while, he didn't really do anything worrying, mostly just reading, playing with some animals, and watching shinobi train. Still, when Kushina entered the kitchen seeing only two people sitting there, she frowned. She knew that Naruto regularly skipped lunch, but she felt that this day, they should all be together.

"Does either of you know where Naruto is?" She asked.

"Out?" Natsuki guessed, not really caring. The smell of ramen was much more important than her stupid brother, after all. Not to mention that she had played with her friends until late in the evening, and was woken up very early, only to play more. She was tired.

But now Minato frowned. "Kushina, do you remember who we asked to care for him while we were away? I know that we were talking about him the night before, but what happened next?"

Kushina considered it, racking her memory but coming up blank, when she noticed something. "Minato, is Natsuki's old drawing giving off light?"

Indeed, the old picture was giving off pulses of light, as if trying to get attention.

"Natsuki, come here." He drew a few seals around her, gave her a slip of paper, and looked her in the eyes. "I'm going to activate a barrier around you. What I just gave you was the key to release it. If something happens, you wait until it's safe, and then you run and get help, do you understand?"

Natsuki nodded, now scared by the seriousness in his voice. Minato activated the seal, encasing Natsuki in an azure orb that would stop just about anything. After knowing she was safe, he carefully stepped next to his wife.

It seemed unlikely that someone had entered, he had two arrays to stop that, but it never hurt to be careful. Using his limited abilities as a sensor, Minato tried to see if anything was unusual. He could sense his arrays all over the house, his wife, the barrier with his daughter in it, and, faintly, the picture. There was a bit of chakra in it, but it was not enough for anything dangerous. If there was an explosive-seal on it, then it would fail with a tiny puff of smoke.

Deeming it fairly safe, Minato pulled out a kunai and tapped the frame with it, Kushina looking over his shoulder.

The crudely-drawn picture rippled. The drawn Naruto looked at the rest of the family, which had scooted closer together, then he turned away, his left arm remaining in Minato's hand, and walked out of the picture, the paper he once occupied vanishing in a fashion that reminded of a falling curtain. Then it was over. Minato stared at the picture, realizing that the part Naruto had been in had been ripped off.

"What the?" Minato muttered. Now that it was over, he saw a small seal, a fairly basic one that allowed the user to save a simple genjutsu and play it. It had been all the rage a few years ago, when everyone used the seal on chests, wallets and other objects. But how did it get here? He looked at his wife.

"Did Naruto do this?" She asked.

Minato shrugged. "That seems the only explanation. He wouldn't tip off the arrays, and would not be recorded as an intruder. But there has to be someone helping him. There's no way that he could have enough knowledge of fuinjutsu and genjutsu to make this seal. It's simple, yes, but one must at least know what they're doing to craft this."

Kushina gave him a glance. "Minato, you have the habit of leaving things lying around. Is there ANY chance that Naruto may have learned something out of scrolls that you didn't put back into their shelves?"

Minato frowned, but nodded. "It's possible, but that alone would not... oh."

Kushina looked at him. "Oh? What do you mean oh?"

Minato scratched his head. "I gave Naruto the permission to browse the library, and he may have learned something there."

Kushina blinked. "I see. In any case, we should find Naruto, and ask him what this is supposed to mean. Look, he tore up Natsuki's picture!"

Natsuki, after deeming it safe, had disarmed the barrier. She didn't really care about what was going on, she wanted her ramen! "Who cares about Nii-san's stupid picture, I WANT RAMEN!"

Kushina turned around, her mother-senses giving off a bad vibe. "What do you mean, nii-san's picture?"

Natsuki slapped her hands on her mouth, realizing that she had just made a mistake. "Nothing mom, can we eat?"

But Kushina was not stupid. "Natsuki Uzumaki-Namikaze, do not lie to me. Look me in the eyes young lady, and tell me exactly what you meant when you said nii-san's picture."

Natsuki squirmed looking everywhere but her mother, until she finally blurted out "Niisanmadethatpicture!"

Kushina blinked. "Again, slower."

Natsuki bit her lip. "Nii-san made that picture. I... borrowed it and filled in the names."

Kushina stared at her. While the crime was really petty, she didn't like being lied to, much less by her own daughter. She remembered the day, and Naruto's hurt look when punished. "So you were lying to us the whole time?"

Natsuki looked at the floor. She mumbled something that could, with much imagination, be translated to "Yes mom."

Minato looked at her. "Natsuki, you know that we don't like lies. I think you should spend the day in your room, thinking about what you did. You will be skipping mealtime today."

Natsuki stared in horror. "What about the ramen? Please daddy, not the ramen!" She begged, but her father would not be moved.

"What punishment would this be if we gave you ramen? Of course you're not getting any ramen, that's part of your punishment. Now, are there any other things you'd like to tell us about? Some other misconceptions, or lies, that you didn't correct us on?"

Natsuki frowned, folded her arms in front of her chest, and stubbornly turned her head away. "I'm not telling!"

Minato and Kushina exchanged glances. Natsuki's reply had basically been a confession that there were other things, but right now, they had a different priority.

"In any case, we should find Naruto. I'm going to ask the guys watching the barrier for help." Minato told his wife, before vanishing in a yellow flash.

Kushina took Natsuki upstairs to her room and activated the seals to keep her inside. As she did, she realized that this was the first time she had done so with Natsuki, while she must have done it dozens of times with Naruto. Considering that she was doing to to punish Natsuki for lying and claiming Naruto's work as his own, she started to wonder if there had been times when she had punished Naruto for something his sister had done.

Afterwords she herself started to look for her son. The first step when looking for someone was to ask friends and associates, so Kushina decided to do the same. It was only then that she really realized an anomaly in Naruto's behavior. He had been watched ever since his accident, and while he had occasionally slipped away, those moments were few, and there usually was some witness that could dimly remember seeing him on the training-grounds, the library, or just strolling through town. But in all the time he was observed, there was not a single time were Naruto had sought the company of someone his age, or any human contact beyond observing shinobi train. She had to ask herself why her son acted that way, being so solitary. Even if the injury had put him in a bad mood, at least one of his friends should have at least tried to talk to him. Was it possible that Naruto didn't have any friends among his peers?

-0-

"What do you mean, he may not be in the village?" Minato demanded.

While the barrier was more for detecting intruders and had a few faults, it could be used to look for a certain signature, if it was registered. Naruto's chakra-signature was registered, so he should have shown up as a red spot on the map, but it had stayed blank. The current watcher had stated that this could mean two things. Either Naruto was dead, a rather unlikely scenario, as residue in the coils should be enough to detect a corpse as long as he was fresher than two weeks, or he had simply left the territory the barrier encased. Needless to say, Minato had not taken the information well.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, but that is really all I can say. He does not show up on the map, so either he is dead, in an area that blocks the sensors, like a compound, or he is not in the village."

Minato nodded. "I see. Thank you for the advice, I'll check the compounds that may be the one in question." He _hiraishin_ed away.

Appearing in front of the Hokage's tower, he looked around, trying to distinguish the one Naruto would most likely be in. 'Lets see, what child does Naruto spend the most time with?'

Pondering that, Minato realized that he had never seen Naruto spend time with any child. Naruto's rhythm of life seemed similar to that of a shinobi who lost those that he cherished, going through the motions of living without really opening to anyone. Kakashi would be a good example for this, although the man did spend some time with him, the last living person that he could relate with. His teammates were gone, Obito dead, Rin M.I.A., so Minato was really the only thing that kept Kakashi from completely cutting ties with the world. And even with Minato present, Kakashi spent most of his time alone.

While such a behavior was not too uncommon for old men and veterans, it was not something that Naruto as a child should have.

As he didn't know who Naruto may play with, he decided to start with the Aburame, and work his way through other the clans if Naruto wasn't there.

-0-

Kushina was getting desperate. She had gone through Natsuki's list of friends, but nobody had seen her boy, or even knew anyone who was his friend. If children don't know anyone who is a friend of their best friend's twin brother, then that is sending a very worrying message. She was currently in the Hyuuga-compound, talking to the notoriously shy Hinata.

"I-I-I'm sorry I c-can't help you, miss K-K-Kushina, b-but I didn't see N-N-N-Naruto-san."

Kushina felt desperate. "And you really don't know anyone who spends time with Naruto? Nobody?"

Hinata shook her head.

Kushina pulled on her hair. "ARGH! It's like my sochi doesn't have a single friend!" She called out. Hinata was suddenly very interested in her feet. Kushina paused. "Hinata, does Naruto have friends?"

Hinata was trying to stare a hole into the floor. She seemed to be struggling with herself. Kushina put her arms on the girl's shoulders and went down on one knee so that they were at the same eye-level. "Hinata, please. Naruto's gone. If you know anything..."

Hinata couldn't meet her eyes, but she slowly shook her head. Kushina's head sagged in disappointment, until she heard Hinata's faint voice. "N-no, Naruto-san doesn't h-have a-a-any f-friends."

Kushina stared at her. "Hinata, do you know why?"

Hinata looked like she wanted to be anywhere, just not here. She really didn't want to get Natsuki in trouble, but she was a horrible liar.

"Hinata?"

Hinata bit her lip. "W-well, I k-know how it s-started." She finally admitted.

Kushina looked at her. "Really? How?"

Hinata gulped. "W-well, it s-started really harmless..."

And so Kushina learned of the birthday-party and of Natsuki's behavior. Needless to say, Kushina was shocked to hear of such behavior from the daughter she had believed as innocent as a kitten, especially since she had to this day not lifted the 'ban' she had placed on anyone who played with Naruto, confirming that it was still active whenever asked. That was beginning to worry Kushina. Together with a few other hints that Hinata had dropped, the pieces of the puzzle seemed to match to form a picture that she didn't like. It looked like Natsuki had started to use her brother as a scapegoat. But maybe she was overthinking things.

-0-

Minato had gone through all compounds that may have blocked the scan, only to find nothing and in many cases hear that his wife had been there first. So he returned to asking the barrier-crew if Naruto had returned, only to hear that this was not the case. So after he reunited with his wife, they decided to ask Kakashi for advice, as he was a tracker and should be able to find him fairly easily. Kakashi obeyed the call of his old sensei, and had promptly arrived, for a change not late.

"So you want me to find your son." Kakashi summarized after hearing the rather distraught parents out. "That shouldn't be too difficult. I know that he spends his time inside the village, so he shouldn't have much experience traveling. When was the last time you saw him?"

Minato and Kushina exchanged a baffled look, before Minato took the initiative. "I'm not sure about Kushina, but I haven't seen anyone not involved in the youki-hunt in a week."

Kushina nodded. "I was also involved in that, the last time I saw Naruto was before the sweep started."

Now Kakashi's brow twitched, once. "You're telling me that he may have a week's head-start? The boy knows how to water-walk, so he can do shinobi-travel, which means he could be practically anywhere by now! And even if he traveled the civilian way, he could still already be well out of Hi no Kuni. Not to mention that we had heavy rain a few days ago, so if he left before that, then I'm afraid there is nobody who would be able to track him. All footprints are gone, and the rain will have washed away every scent. I'll try to get a trace, but if he left before the rain, then I'm afraid there's nothing I can do."

Kushina looked downcast, but still nodded. "Please do."

Kakashi nodded and headed out.

He had barely left, when another visitor entered. Minato managed a tired smile. "Hello sensei."

Jiraiya nodded in greeting. "So, where is this message that your son may have left?"

Minato handed him the picture. Jiraiya charged it with chakra, and the scene replayed itself. Jiraiya charged it again, taking the scene in again.

Finally, Kushina couldn't stand the silence any longer. "And? What do you make of it?"

Jiraiya scratched his head. "Well, if it is from Naruto, then the message is pretty clear. He is telling you that he no longer considers himself a part of the family, and left."

Minato shook his head. "But why would he do that?"

Jiraiya gave him an almost apologetic look. "I'm not in his head, but I think I can guess part of the reason. Look closely at the picture. You're still holding his left arm."

Minato grabbed the picture and realized that the picture was indeed torn in a way that the Minato in it was still holding the arm of the drawn Naruto, although the rest of the drawn boy was, of course, not there. "Oh god. Kami have mercy, you think he found out about his arm?"

Jiraiya nodded. "It would make sense, and it is the only explanation why the picture was torn at that particular spot. That's too much of a coincident to ignore. Either somebody else let it slip, or he overheard you talking about it, unless either of you told him?" He finished with a questioning look.

Both parents shook their heads, then Kushina clapped her hands in front of her mouth. "Oh no!" She gasped. "We talked about his arm just before I left for the border-patrol, remember?"

Minato's eyes widened as he remembered what he had said back then. Even if it was only black humor, if Naruto had somehow heard that part...

His pondering was interrupted by a number of seals going off, alerting him to a problem in Natsuki's room. His head snapped up. "Something's wrong with Natsuki!" He called out.

Jiraiya and Kushina immediately jumped up and ran to Natsuki's room, Minato leading the small stampede.

-0-

Natsuki had spent the day in a rage, throwing stuff around. She was never sent to her room, and she definitely wasn't denied ramen! That stuff happened to her brother, not her!

Eventually she had laid down in her bed, exhausted from breaking nearly everything in her room and the bathroom that wasn't sealed unbreakable. That was when the pain started. It started as a small burning, and she instinctively stood up to go to her brother. It was only then when she realized two things. One, that she could not leave her room, and two, her brother was not here, so even if she got out, it would do her no good.

The burning got more intense, and she barely managed to reach the toilet before all that was in her stomach stormed out the way it came in. she heaved again and again, even after she had thrown up everything that was in her stomach, and only tasted the bile on her tongue. However, it didn't get better.

Her lungs were burning, millions of freezing-cold needles were rammed into her skin while said skin was being burned at the same time. Everything seemed to tighten, her joints felt like they were bending in the wrong direction, her blood was boiling in her veins, burning all tissue it came in contact with. Her internals were melting, her ears were popping under pressure, and two spinning drills were slowly being forced into her eyes. Natsuki had never been in such pain before, she had never even known such pain _existed_. She could not even scream, the pain was just too much. All she could do was whimper.

The door flew open, and shadowy figures entered. "Natsuki? NATSUKI! What's wrong with her?" That was her mother.

"I don't know!" That was her father. A hand touched her, and she latched onto it, just wanting the pain to stop.

"ARGH?" That was Jiraiya-jiichan. The hand was pulled away, and Natsuki whimpered again.

"It hurts. Get Naru-nii." She stammered. "He makes it all better. Need Naru-nii."

"Jiraiya, what's wrong?" Her mother.

"Hurts...Naru-nii..." She muttered, then, finally, everything turned black.

-0-

Jiraiya stared at his arm, which had the imprint of two small hands glowing in an angry red. He looked at Natsuki. "Minato, I think it's a surge."

Minato stared at him. "A surge? But she's been a jinchuuriki since birth! She shouldn't even feel them by now!"

Kushina didn't understand as much about jinchuuriki, but she had eyes. She gasped. "Jiraiya, your arm!"

Jiraiya lifted it up. "It hurts pretty badly, I can tell you that much. I think Natsuki tried to channel the youki into me."

Minato gaped at him. "That's impossible! You're not a jinchuuriki, your body can't handle youki."

The older man looked at his arm. "Yes, I think we can see that."

Minato stared, at Natsuki, at Jiraiya's arm, then again at his daughter. "Now that you mention it, I never noticed any surge-pain even when she was a baby. But that's impossible. For her to feel it even now, she'd have to have channeled practically every surge into someone else. I think someone would have told us if something like that happened."

Jiraiya frowned. "What did Natsuki say before she fainted? 'Get Naru-nii, he makes it all better'?"

Minato's jaw dropped. "You think she..."

The toad-sage nodded grimly. "Yes, I do."

Kushina looked at both of them. "Can someone explain to me what's going on? What's wrong with Natsuki?"

Minato sighed wearily. "Nothing's wrong with her Kushina. Jiraiya thinks, and I agree, that Natsuki is going through a for jinchuuriki completely normal thing known as a surge. That basically means that the bijuu, in our case Kyuubi, floods Natsuki's coils, and by extension her entire body, with youki. Don't worry Kushina, it's harmless. It happens to get the body used to the youki, so that in a situation where she has to call upon it, it won't immediately damage her body. The jinchuuriki normally only feels the first few surges, before the resistance against youki is high enough to ignore it. The first surge is the worst, and it only gets better from there."

Kushina pointed at her daughter, who, even in unconsciousness, was writhing in agony. "This never happened before!"

Minato gulped. "Well, Jiraiya had a theory..." He paused when he caught his old teacher giving him the evil eye "...and I agree," He hastily added "that this is probably the first surge Natsuki has ever really gone through."

"Wait, I thought that happened as soon as the bijuu settled? Natsuki has been a jinchuuriki since birth!" She asked, remembering reading something on the topic a few years back.

Minato looked away. "Normally yes, but Jir... we suspect that Natsuki's case is a little different."

Jiraiya took over. "She tried to pump the youki into me when I touched her, and before she fainted she asked for her brother, since he 'made it all better'. We think..."

But Kushina had connected the dots herself, and remembered what Naruto had told her every time Natsuki was in his bed. _It hurts._ "No... You think she pumped the youki into Naruto?" She was deathly pale, and tears welled up in her eyes when she remembered dismissing and scolding him every time he tried to tell her.

Minato nodded. "It seems the most logical explanation."

Now Jiraiya spoke up. "It would also be one more reason why he up and left. Before today, when was the last time Natsuki was in his bed?"

Kushina frowned through her tears. "A few weeks ago. A month?"

Minato shook his head. "No, the seals I placed around the house also look whose in what room. Natsuki was in Naruto's room little over a week ago."

Jiraiya nodded his head. "I thought so. A surge is only supposed to happen roughly every two months. It looks like Kyuubi is getting impatient because there is no progress, and shortening the intervals, probably while increasing the amount of youki. Naruto was probably able to recover from the surge in two months, but with the way it is now, there is no way he can last when he is injected twice a month. I'm no expert, you'd have to ask Tsunade, but my guess would be that his body is starting to break down. So if Naruto realized this, and somehow learned that you kept the true state of his arm a secret from him... well, we have a motive."

Minato sighed. "In any case, we should get her to Tsunade, just in case we're wrong."

Jiraiya looked at his arm. "And how do you suggest we do that?"

Kushina rolled her eyes, grabbed a blanket and threw it over Natsuki's twitching body, before wrapping her up in it. "Like this Jiraiya, how else?"

The older man raised his hands in defense. "Hey, I'm single and have never been a father, so how should I know how to take care of a child?"

"Men." The mother mumbled as she headed to see her good friend Tsunade, who would probably not be amused to hear that they still hadn't told Naruto about his arm, and that said boy was now missing, looking at his room most likely because he ran away. The two men followed her like obedient puppies.

As they headed to Tsunade, knowing that they would soon get a scolding like little children, Minato felt like the weight of the world had been dropped on him. How could he have not noticed what was going on? Kushina had told him that Natsuki was one of the reasons Naruto had no friends, disturbing as it was. He and Kushina exchanged glances, and knew that they had made the same decision. After Natsuki was back up, there would be some changes. For both their children.

-0-

Natsuki groaned. The pain was less, but she still felt it. Why was this happening to her? And where was she? This wasn't her room.

The room was dimly lit. It looked almost like a throne-room, but something was wrong. She couldn't say what, but everything was wrong, like in a caricature. The proportions were all wrong, the entire setting looked fake and twisted. What furthered the headache was the fact that the room's angles were all wrong. There were no right angles, the entire place had a cartoonish edge to it, only that you got the feeling that this was all wrong.

The wall to Natsuki's right, the one behind the throne, was almost completely covered by a horrible painting, depicting what only on third glance could be identified as a winner's podium, simply due to the fact that it looked more like a square tower. The middle-spot, which signified the winner with a big 1, was shooting high into the sky, looking to be at least a mile high. On it was a horribly-proportioned figure with a head that was much too big for its body, showing off an evil grin that in turn seemed to big for even the huge head. What unnerved Natsuki was that there was a minimal resemblance to her in that ugly figure.

The reason why it took so long to distinguish the podium was that the spot for the second was probably only thirty feet tall, occupied by a few figures the size of fleas, too small to be identified. The third spot was practically invisible, nothing more than a small spot.

The only thing that didn't look like it was designed to mock nature was the wall to Natsuki's left. It consisted of bars the size of trees, way too far apart to imprison anything smaller than an elephant. She carefully approached, peering into the darkness... To jump back with a cry when a red eye larger than she was snapped open!

"_**So, my jailor finally lowers herself to greet me."**_ A voice growled, loud as thunder.

"W-W-Who are you?" Natsuki demanded.

"_**Do you really have to ask? I already suspected which sibling inherited the brains of the family, and I guess I was right."**_ The voice muttered.

Natsuki looked at the eye. It had moved, and a second eye was visible. "Kyuubi." She gasped. Up to this point, she had heard of the demon trapped in her guts, but if she was honest, she had never really believed it. It was something she could brag with, something that brought her friendship and admiration. Now, face-to-face with the being whose existence she had never really acknowledged, it was suddenly not so great.

The demon grinned, presenting rows of razor-sharp teeth. _**"Correct. What was your first clue?"**_

Natsuki's brow ticked. She hated being belittled- "Stupid fox, do you know who you're talking to? I'm..."

"_**SILENCE!"**_ The fox roared, sending Natsuki back with a shriek of fear. _**"Petulant child, an arrogant brat is what you are! Such a boring thing, never achieving anything, only stealing glory. You are weak, equal only to maggots and vermin!"**_

Natsuki puffed her chest out. "I took care of an assassin from Iwa all by myself! The man was an ANBU, and I..."

"_**Ran away in fright after realizing your own helplessness. You did nothing."**_ Kyuubi interrupted.

Natsuki frowned. "Okay, so I used your genjutsu-abilities, so? You're sealed in me, so that counts!"

"_**My genjutsu-abilities?"**_ The fox seemed honestly amused. _**"Whatever gave you the idea that I had any genjutsu-abilities?"**_

Natsuki looked offended by the idea that she might not have an ability that she bragged with. "B-B-But... You're a kitsune!"

Kyuubi rolled its eyes. _**"I have the appearance of a kitsune. I am youki, and genjutsu is an art designed by humans, therefore fueled mainly by human-chakra. I do not have any genjutsu-capabilities, nor do I have a need for them. Why couldn't I get sealed into the intelligent sibling?"**_

Natsuki pouted, but answered "Because Naru-nii is a boy and sealing something of one gender into something of a different gender is not good."

A barking laugh answered her. _**"I am a mass of highly intelligent youki, do you really believe I have a gender?"**_

Natsuki stared. "But Nibi has a gender! Tou-san said that when they sealed it into a man, it was a catastrophe!"

"_**The Two-tailed One?"**_ Kyuubi asked. _**"It has taken intelligence from its hosts, and gained the personality of a female, of a mother. I do recall that event, one of my seekers was present. The problem was not that it was a man, but that he, believing it his right, attempted to rape a woman. One of the traits the Two-tailed One absorbed was the hatred of rapists, as such, being sealed into one was unacceptable."**_

Natsuki shook her head. She didn't care about history, but she wanted her genjutsu-powers! "You're lying! Of course it was me who took out the ANBU, who else could it have been?"

The great fox looked at her, the expression similar to someone that found a mildly interesting beetle on their path. _**"Who else? Your brother. The one who made a habit out of putting you in a genjutsu so you wouldn't bother him. The same one that is gone, meaning that now you can no longer use him as a lightning-rod for the Surge. Annoying insect."**_

Natsuki stared at the fox. "I'm not an insect! And if you're not a girl, how come everyone says you are? Huh? Answer that!"

Kyuubi growled, and Natsuki fell on her but again. _**"The reason is simple. All nine of us know how to shift into other shapes that we know. The one who claimed I was female..."**_

A red whirlwind broke out in the cage, and when it vanished, the fox was gone. Instead there was a woman in the cage. She looked to be in her early twenties, the long red hair that flowed from her head like red water reaching down to her her shapely butt. Her figure was like an hourglass, her thin waist and long slender legs contrasting with the DD-cup breasts that perked up from her chest. Her features were noble and beautiful. She was wearing a short red kimono with foxes on it. _**"...simply saw me in this form."**_

Natsuki gaped, slack-jawed. Not even her mother looked that good!

Kyuubi grinned. _**"Ah, jealous? I'll admit, this form does have a beauty rarely seen in the world."**_ She frowned, even that looking cute, and fox-ears popped from her head, while nine slender tails grew from her back, just above her firm buttocks. _**"I just feel naked without them. But you are right to adore this form, the woman who once had these features was a great beauty."**_

Natsuki stared. "You mean you're just copying the appearance of someone you once knew? Who was she?"

Kyuubi smiled, a smile that would enchant all humans to falling to her feet, but Natsuki felt a shudder. There was something evil in that smile. _**"She was a sacrifice. There was a village that believed me a god, so they captured a woman that happened to be traveling through the village, killing her husband and son, and tied her to a cliff, so that I would take her and leave the village alone. At the time, I was looking for a human disguise, so I graciously accepted. The woman was brave, she stared me in the eye and cried out 'If you truly are a god, then I give my life to you! I just have one request! Avenge me! Avenge my husband and my child! Do not let these beasts go unpunished! Kill them, so that they reap what they've sown!' Her anger and grief were so potent, you can't even imagine. So I swallowed her, using my youki to carefully study her. Her hair, her skin, her blood, her flesh, her muscles, her organs, her brain, her bones. I took her apart piece by piece, gaining her form, and more intelligence. Afterwords I fulfilled her request and massacred every being in that village."**_

Natsuki shuddered. This woman was evil. But she was curious. "So, do you have a male form too?" She was sure the fox didn't, after all, with a body like that, who would want another one, and using that as evidence that she was female after all. She was Natsuki Namikaze-Uzumaki, she was never wrong!

But Kyuubi shattered that belief. _**"Of course."**_ When the wind settled this time, Natsuki couldn't help but drool. In front of her sat a man, maybe seventeen years old. He was muscular, but not bulky, his chiseled body being lean. He was wearing loose-fitting pants and a open jacket with wide sleeves. Only the open jacket. His muscled chest was in full view. His hair was black and long, the back-part of it woven into a number of braids that reached down to his shoulder-blades. The ears and tales were pitch-black. His features were even, not even the smallest flaw to be found, and he had a kind of rugged good look that would make girls faint in groups when he passed. He frowned. _**"It appears that in this form, I won't be able to get a word out of you."**_ Natsuki blinked, and the beautiful woman was back. _**"In case you were wondering, that boy was a hero that threw himself down my throat to save his village. Seeing that he gave me another form, I spared the place."**_

Natsuki wiped her drool away, and looked around. "Anyways fox, were did you bring me?"

The woman snorted. _**"This is your mind, or at least a representation of your mind."**_

Natsuki jumped up in anger. "LIAR! There's no way my mind is such a twisted place!"

Now Kyuubi's smile turned feral. _**"Of course it is. It's twisted because you are twisted. That picture over there shows your priorities. You care about yourself, and practically only about yourself. Everyone else is so low in your list of priorities that if it was height, you couldn't even make them out anymore. In case you're wondering, those dots on the second step are your **__**parents, your godfather and those you call your friends. On the third step are those that worship you. You see, even with those you 'care' about, it has to revolve around you. You are selfish. You **__**would let your parents die if saving them would put you at risk. The thrones speaks of your arrogance, and the lack of a scepter symbolizes that you do not have power. You are a boring creature."**_

Natsuki stared at the woman, too shocked to deny. "I-I can't be that bad!" She called out.

"_**But you are."**_ Kyuubi answered. _**"Do you want proof?"**_

Natsuki nodded her head. She was a good person, so there was nothing to fear.

"_**You do have some good in you."**_ Kyuubi admitted, before she grinned. _**"It's right here with me."**_ Even as she spoke, a small figure wearing a blanket like a hood stepped out of the darkness and snuggled to the woman's side. It barely reached above her knee.

"What's that?" Natsuki asked.

Kyuubi patted the figure's head, from the looks and size of it, it was a child no older than four. _**"We Nine occasionally meet, and exchange information. On that occasion I heard from the Six-tailed One that normally, the host of one of us, who knows, maybe all humans do, develops a Dark Self. While I, never being sealed before, can't say if it is true, you don't have a Dark Self."**_

Natsuki pointed her finger. "See! I told you I was a good girl!"

Kyuubi gave her an almost pitying look. _**"The reason you haven't formed a Dark Self is the simple fact that you are living it."**_

Natsuki blinked. "What?"

"_**A Dark Self is born out of repressed emotions, from what should your Dark Self form? You are giving into every evil temptation, you vent all your anger on others. Had I not intervened, there would be no light left in you."**_ Kyuubi stated.

Natsuki stared at the fox. She wanted to call it a liar, she really did, but looking back at her life, which in this twisted chamber seemed like looking at a movie, she didn't find one time where she had not let her frustration out on someone or something. That Kyuubi was still smiling showed her that she too could see the images that, as Natsuki now noticed, the small cloaked figure was projecting. Finally, her throat oddly dry, Natsuki asked "What do you mean, you intervened?"

Kyuubi smiled. _**"Before I get to that, I'll explain why you are in so much pain. You see, to get you used to my youki, I have been sending it through you ever since the day I let myself be sealed into you. You however, in some pathetic attempt to ease the pain that would have faded anyways, channeled it all into your twin. I didn't know it was possible before, as the boy does not have a jinchuuriki's healing, meaning that your actions were very bad for his health, but because you did so, I could not even give you a one-tailed cloak without it peeling the skin off your flesh, which also means that you can't use any of my abilities, not that you would appreciate them. Really, why couldn't I be sealed into your brother?"**_

Natsuki blinked. She didn't understand what the fox was talking about, but the words 'my abilities' rang in her. "So I'm getting powers? What is it? Can I shoot lasers out of my eyes? Can I fly? Can I turn the Hokage-monument upside down?"

Kyuubi snorted. _**"And this is the reason I wanted to be sealed into your brother. You won't be able to appreciate my abilities. No, my powers are nothing flashy, if you wanted that, you should have let the Two-tailed One or the Four-tailed One sealed into you. My powers are directly related to why I traveled to Konoha in the first place."**_

Natsuki stared. Nobody knew why the Kyuubi had shown up. If it told her, then she would be the only one! "Why did you come?"

Kyuubi's answer would shock the world. _**"Why else, because you called me."**_

Natsuki's jaw dropped. "WHAT? STOP LYING, NOBODY CALLED YOU!"

Kyuubi laughed. _**"Of course you did. You even say it in your legends, 'The Nine-tailed Fox appears where malice festers'. That is true. You see, my power does not reign over lava, steam, the desert, or the dead. No, my power involves the mind. Emotions. It's as simple as that. I can feel emotions of others, I can manipulate them, I can even harvest them and bind them into my power. That is the reason why I never bothered with genjutsu. I don't need it! I can drive humans into deepest despair, wildest passion or murderous rage with but a snap of my fingers, what do I need illusions for? And emotions are a powerful force by itself. They can linger in a place centuries after the humans that brought them forth have turned to dust. The moving feeling at looking at a great work of art, the fluttering in your stomach when you see a romantic spot, the shivers running down your back when you enter a house with bloody history, all this is caused by lingering emotions. I can harvest them, and use them to give myself these traits. Admiration, love, sheer terror, I can cause them all with my sheer presence. Unlike the Others, I have never had the need for a host to gain intelligence, I drained it from the ones that gave me my shapes, and used those shapes to enter your world and learn. And not long ago, I felt a pull towards a certain city, or village, as you call it."**_

"Why Konoha?" A new voice asked. Natsuki was startled by its feeble sound, realizing only after a second that the cloaked figure had spoken. The voice sounded like it belonged to a girl.

Kyuubi patted her head, the demon's eyes taking on a dreamy expression. _**"Simple. Because in the entire world, there was not a place so rotten as Konoha. Sloth, Gluttony, Envy, Lust, Pride, Wrath, Greed, the seven cardinal sins were practically spilling out of your village, together with all forms of lesser evil, such as misery, abandonment and cruelty. It was simply too tempting a maelstrom to resist. Corruption in amounts that have not been seen for centuries. Then your father came, and summoned the Shinigami of all beings. I knew he planned to seal me away, and I let him. Had I truly wanted to escape, I could have just separated from the youki that the god of death had in his grasp. But as a being living off emotions, I was curious. What emotions do humans feel? What are those finer emotions that don't last long? Those fluttering feelings that vanish so quickly? Imagine my disappointment when I learned that I had been sealed into an arrogant brat with the emotional depth of a rock!"**_

Natsuki was insulted, but the figure interrupted her. "It's true. You are a shallow, empty being."

That was too much. "Who do you think you are to say something like that to _me_?"

Kyuubi laughed. _**"You really haven't figured it out? Let me enlighten you. You started with the same potential that all humans have, a potential for both good and evil. However, you grew arrogant and addicted to feeble feelings of power. You embraced these darker parts of your being, and slowly crushed all good that was in you. But in doing so, you became worthless for me. You **__**had nothing left to offer that I don't already know. Perhaps I would have made you a mere battery, but most likely I would have simply overloaded your body with my youki and killed you. Some of it would have escaped, and I would have reformed from that, like all of us do when a host dies. However, I was able to gather those dying embers of goodness, of selflessness, of true companionship, of honesty, and what was crushed first, of your love for your sibling. All those little emotions crumbling under the weight of your insufferable personality I gathered, I gave it form, I nurtured it back to health. You see, just because you have not formed a Dark Self does not mean that your soul is not divided into a Light-part and a Dark-part. The only difference is, the positions are reversed."**_

Now the other figure spoke, slowly removing the blanket it was wrapped in. "You who stands on the other side of the cage, do you not understand?" The blanket fell to the floor, revealing... a younger Natsuki. "You are the Dark Self of the one who calls herself Natsuki, as I am the Light."

This new Natsuki looked identical to the one outside the cage, only smaller and less cared for. Her hair was messy, and you could see tear-stains down the entire length of her face. She looked slightly underfed, but there was a fire in her eyes.

It had taken much of Kyuubi's admittedly limited reserves of positive emotions to nurse the little lump of goodness back to health, but it had worked. The reason for it's appearance was now not weakness, but reaction to the girl's behavior.

Still, Kyuubi had hope that once they merged, this girl would be able to show her something interesting, which was the only reason Natsuki was still breathing.

While the older Natsuki started to crawl backwards until her back hit the throne, somehow instinctively deathly afraid of the small child in front of her, the younger one walked through the bars until she was right in front of her darker part. Then the young figure kneeled down. "Call it a gamble, but I think we've been separated for too long. Things have changed, you've become a complication. Kyuubi told me that our parents have learned of you channeling the youki you were supposed to take. Do you understand that you were killing our brother? And I think they also found out that it's your fault he doesn't have any friends. How long do you think they'll need to find out that you and everyone was just blaming brother for your own actions?"

Natsuki paled. This was bad, this was really bad. "Go away!" She called out.

Her younger self shook her head. "No. you've been in command too long. It's time we become one." She hugged the old Natsuki, and the girl screamed as they merged in a hiss. The entire mindscape flickered, before normalizing, although now everything had a wet shimmer to it.

Kyuubi laughed. _**"Well, it will take a few months for the merge to completely finish, so it should be done by the time you grow used to the surges. And make no mistake, I will personally ensure that you won't flee into unconsciousness again. The next time I see you, the merge will be complete, and if you then still cannot interest me..."**_

With that, Natsuki, the Natsukis?, were thrown out of the mind, and into true unconsciousness.

* * *

Chapter 7 is done. Finally!

I know I made you all wait, and some are still waiting for other stories, but things are a little crazy right now. Two story-ideas wouldn't leave me alone, and now that I wrote them down, two more are acting up. It's like fighting a hydra of stories! Either way, I made the chapter extra-long, partially since I'm hoping that with this, I'll breach the 1000-review-barrier. I'm so exited, I've always wanted to write a 1000+ story, but honestly, I never expected that I actually would. Sniff.

Well, I made Naruto leave. I'll admit that he got his genjutsu back under control pretty quickly, but he had the whole day, and had been on a level where he could cast it without handsigns, simply because he had used it so often. And the reason I didn't have him write an angry letter blaming the parents and unveiling all of Natsuki's wrongs was that it just seemed... petty. I wanted to show that it was a determined and thought-through decision of Naruto, and writing a letter like that just seemed childish. It would have made the entire running away look like the temper-tantrum of an upset child, and I didn't want that. But leaving without a message also takes away meaning, as nobody would even get the idea that Naruto just ran off. So I chose the picture as a medium. It was simple, it was obvious, and it told his parents 'You have been underestimating my abilities' without actually bragging.

I also wanted the reason for Naruto's escape be less obvious than what is normal with fics like this, namely in Harry Potter, where the neglect is criminal, and there is physical abuse and practical slavery. I wanted to show that the parents were maybe a little arrogant and ignorant, but still well-meaning, and that a not unimportant factor with him leaving is simple bad luck. When he drew the picture and his mother happened to stumble on Natsuki when she was finishing it, Naruto not knowing that both of his parents are absent for a few days and think that they didn't notice him, or that he didn't even realize that with the healing of his arm, the Kyuubi's youki was gone, which would drive the entire village into a paranoid frenzy, meaning that his parents simply didn't have the time to look after their children, and since they were still under _Mekura_ when they made their arrangements, they didn't even notice that they hadn't planned for Naruto. There were mistakes on the parents' part, many mistakes, but there was also a larger number of misunderstandings that finally caused Naruto to cut all ties with his birth-family.

As for the part in Natsuki's head, well her mind obviously couldn't be a sewer, so I decided to make it a twisted homage to her arrogance and personality. I brought the split personality in because that was one thing in canon I liked, Naruto having a separate personality for his negative emotions. But then I realized that that wasn't possible with Natsuki, as the girl was living her evil part. So I decided that the split part should be her good side. Then I asked myself how anything good could have survived Natsuki's mindset, and decided on Kyuubi. But now I needed a motive for Kyuubi to do so.

I was also wondering what abilities the Kyuubi might have. As the strongest of all nine, it couldn't simply be the raw power it's shown in the manga, and I didn't really like the whole 'Lord of Fire'-idea that was spread with the false bijuu-legend and adopted by the anime-makers to make the eight-tailed form more interesting. So I took a step back, and looked at the legends and other things from canon. It was said that the Kyuubi appeared where malice festered. Also, when Naruto used Kyuubi's chakra, he could suddenly sense hatred and other negative emotions. I asked myself what such things could mean to the Kyuubi, as it obviously didn't have to worry about assassins or spies, so why should it be able to detect something that has no meaning to it? So I decided to give the Kyuubi power over emotions, a less flashy art and therefore useless for Natsuki, but with great potential. You can block sand, you can block steam, you can even block lava, but how do you block hatred, lust or grief? Of course, feeding off emotions means that one has to be closer to what creates these emotions, aka humans. So Kyuubi needed a human-form, or at least something that doesn't attract as much attention as a giant fox. But how would a mass of youki learn the details of a human form? Obviously by studying humans, which was the reason for the stories on the shapes.

And yes, I decided that bijuu have no real gender. I stated that they were masses of intelligent youki, which means that they are essentially energy with a mind, and energy has no gender. It may have certain properties that allow it to be attuned to certain tasks, but a gender? No.

And when I had the Kyuubi's abilities, I had a motive: Curiosity. Kyuubi wanted to learn of emotions that are perhaps not strong enough to linger in the air, and for that it needed a somewhat balanced human. As an arrogant prat without a sliver of goodness, Natsuki could produce nothing that Kyuubi hasn't seen before.

Oh, and one thing I didn't specify. The arm can give Naruto a temporary doujutsu, but it will only do so when it wants to point out something to Naruto, for example using the Byakugan and making a person with a kekkei-genkai it wants glow. As for the Sharingan's ability, I do have something different than usual planned for that.

In the next chapter, which may not be quite as long as this one, we will all see where Naruto's first stop will be. He will also learn that there may be more to his arm than he initially thought. From that point on, the fic will also turn Naruto-centric, meaning that we're going to hear very little from Konoha until it somehow barges back into Naruto's life.

Oh, and to clear off all misunderstandings, the traveling-companion won't show up right away, the soonest moment I can accept is two years into Naruto's freedom. Before that point, he will not crave human-contact, but be happy to finally be rid of the annoyances.

I think that's all, now for the questions.

Q: Does Naruto have regeneration, or is that only the Arm's ability?  
A: Both regeneration and the Kurama-DNA were bound with Naruto by the chakra that his sister pumped in him, not by the one that was building itself a host, so Naruto has those two, but no others, and he doesn't really know it yet.

Q: Will Naruto's arm 'spread'?  
A: No, the youki and the kekkei-genkai will be focused on the arm, and the bloodlines will be only in the arm.

Q: Does Natsuki channeling the youki to Naruto have any ill effects for her?  
A: Well, she gets the pain in a stage where she really understands it, and because the Kyuubi was annoyed and used more than normal, it hurts more. Also, in terms of how much she can take, she is behind Naruto, let alone the other bijuu. By the time she makes genin, she may be able to use the one-tailed cloak, but any more and her skin peels.

Q: Will Naruto join village X?  
A: No! Naruto will probably visit other villages in perfect disguise, maybe eventually learn how to make himself unnoticed by an entire town and learn things from that town he may not have learned otherwise, but he will not join any village. As for Akatsuki, good luck finding someone that looks different every time he does something.

Q: If bijuu are essentially invincible, why is the Hachibi's horn still broken?  
A: While that is not in my story, I will answer. While a bijuu is free, it can absorb the natural energies around it, instantly recovering any damage that may be done to it. However, if they're sealed into a human, the youki's connection with natural energy is cut off, and it has to rely on the excess of the host's chakra it can redirect to itself for recovery, meaning that the reason Hachibi's horn his broken is mainly because he used the little energy he can drain from Killerbee to heal the tentacles first. And they don't disappear because there is a limit to how much youki a jinchuuriki can take from the host. No bijuu, not even the insane Shushaku, would give away so much that they're risking their own existence. They always keep a certain amount in reserve, and that can't be taken from them. Just like canon-Naruto could not take everything, Kyuubi even having enough to spare for one more attack, although it was interrupted.

Q: Will the Uchiha-massacre still happen?  
A: Yes, and it will still be done by Itachi, who will become a missing-nin. Beyond that... we'll see.

Q: Is the arm a kekkei-genkai?  
A: No, and it will not be inherited by Naruto's children, should there be any.

Well, I think the AN is long enough, so for the sake of my 1000+ dream

Please Review


	8. A bumpy Start

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

* * *

While his sister's life would soon change completely, both mentally and physically, Naruto learned that he had made a minor miscalculation.

When he had checked the maps for his destination, he had looked at shinobi-routes. With those routes, his goal would be only half a day's travel away, but posing as a normal civilian, he could not just run through treetops and up cliffs, and most importantly, he was stuck with clear roads, and couldn't just travel in a straight line.

So instead of half a day, it would take an entire day, if he walked through the night, before he arrived at his goal, the Fire-temple. Still, there was nothing Naruto could do but start walking.

-0-

The sun had begun to set, coloring the clearing in beautiful crimson. Naruto stopped, captivated by the scenery. Freedom was such an exhilarating feeling, Naruto was considering painting this sunset, the first one he witnessed in freedom, just to commemorate this moment.

Without warning, he felt his left hand suddenly shoot up. Startled he looked left, and his eyes widened as he saw that his hand had caught an arrow that had been less than an inch away from his temple.

A second later, a group of bandits broke through the clearing, raising weapons, including a crossbow, and shouting at him.

"Shit." Naruto muttered, turning to run, only to come face-to-face with a bear of a man that had somehow managed to get the drop on him.

"Nowhere to run brat." He hollered, raising a large club with nails driven into it.

"Oh fuck!" Naruto shouted very loud, and impolite, as he jumped to the left, the club missing him by mere inches. By the time he had scrambled back to his feet, he was surrounded

The club-swinger, apparently the leader, laughed mockingly. "Not bad kid. You not only managed to catch Matou's shot, but you even dodged my club. Tell you what, give us all you got, and we may let you live."

Naruto's eyes darted around, his posture exactly like that of a cornered animal. 'Shit shit shit, this isn't good. I didn't get much physical training since my crippling, _Mekura_ doesn't work if the target focuses on me before I cast it, and my other genjutsu are still messed up. How do I get out of this?'

What happened next shocked Naruto to the core. His left arm shot forward, and suddenly started _growing_. When it slammed into the leader of the bandits, it was as big as he was, and it wasn't finished as it grew much longer as it grew, until his open hand slammed into a large tree. There was a CRUNCH, and Naruto knew that the leader had been killed. As his arm shrank again, it used the motion to ram its razor-like fingernails, each still almost a foot long at time of impact, into the back of the bandit who stood closest.

Absolute silence reigned, and Naruto could literally smell the fear gripping the hearts of the bandits. However, a different scent was also in there, slowly overpowering the stench of fear. Anger.

"This little shit killed the boss!" "Let's butcher the fucker!" "Hang him with his own gut!" Those and other calls reached Naruto's ears, and the frightened boy took a step back.

As if waiting for something like that, the entire mop charged at Naruto, aiming to tear the monstrous boy to pieces.

Naruto's left arm made what appeared to to be an incomplete handsign, and beneath the bandits, round wooden pikes rose, skewering them all and dragging them into the air, before branching into trees, tearing the bodies to shreds in the process.

Naruto stared wide-eyed as a rain of blood and body-parts went down around him. He slowly turned his head from side to side, taking in the scene of carnage. Blood still dripping from the branches, arms, legs, fingers, and heads scattered around the formerly so peaceful clearing. A few agonized gurgles were heard from above, where torsos, some torn in two, still hung skewered on the trees. "Mbwuargh!" Then Naruto threw up.

-0-

After there was nothing left in his stomach, Naruto managed to drag himself away from the gruesome clearing, shivering like a leaf. In a small spring, that fed into the waterfall of the Valley of the End, Naruto washed himself clean.

Finally, he was again standing on the street, and walked forward, only wanting to leave the clearing behind him.

As he walked, Naruto shed a single tear. He knew he had lost some of his innocence on that clearing, when the blood had rained on him, and a severed head had landed in front of his feet. He had felt it break, and now the last remnant of the innocent child inside him had died.

Now, he truly had left _everything_ behind.

-0-

It took two more hours, but finally, mentally exhausted, his thoughts traveled back to the clearing, and he realized, belatedly, that something was wrong. He sat down, his back leaning against a tree, and lifted his left hand to his face. Pale, with long sharp fingernails, but aside from that it seemed to be just an arm.

Normally he would feel quite foolish, but after the earlier display, such notions had become obsolete. Staring at his arm, Naruto finally spoke. "Do something."

Obediently, the arm twitched, fingers forming a fist, before stretching out again.

Naruto remained absolutely calm. "What are you?" He asked.

In response, the arm was suddenly surrounded by crimson youki, Naruto instinctively recognizing it. Then it placed the index-finger on Naruto's forehead, and the blond boy suddenly had flashes. Of Kyuubi, of a red haze remaining in Konoha, of the haze surrounding him, of himself putting his arms in the solution, and of the youki coming to his aid.

Naruto stared at his limb. "What do you want?"

In reply, flowers began to bloom around him. Looking close, Naruto noticed a pattern on his fingertips, as if his fingerprint had become that pattern, three tomoe, forming what could be both a triangle and a circle. Then youki began to dance around the hand once again, before everything stopped.

Naruto blinked in confusion. What was that supposed to mean? Shaking his head, he decided to solve that later, and now ask a more important question. "So, are you on my side?"

The arm pointed to Naruto's shoulder, where he and the arm were merged.

Naruto nodded, more to himself. "A symbiosis, huh? I guess I can live with that for now."

The arm didn't react, and Naruto placed it back into its sash. Of course trusting a part of Kyuubi in his body was a stupid idea, but so far, it had only been advantageous for him. His arm was working again, somewhat, and it had saved him both from a death by arrow and bandit. He would have to teach it subtlety, but until it proved to be a risk, Naruto would keep an open mind.

Of course, that didn't mean that he would not make preparations should his arm turn against him. Naruto paused, then shook his head in disbelief. He was worrying about his own limb attacking him. Man, his life was messed up.

-0-

Unknown to Naruto, he wasn't as alone as he thought. From the moment he had left Konoha, no, before that, he had been watched. His observer had followed Naruto's every step, never letting the trail run cold for even a split-second. He had seen what happened to the bandits, and how the arm had acted seemingly without any regard for its owners wishes. While the watcher wasn't sure what was going on, he was determined to follow the boy, to the end of the earth if need be.

-0-

Naruto leaned against a tree, and let his body slide down until he was sitting. Now that both the first rush of freedom and the shock from what happened with the bandits had passed, the full extent of his situation.

He was alone, a seven-year-old boy in the middle of nowhere. He had very little money, only limited food and water, and hardly any supplies that would help him living outdoors. He had a few kunai, some shinobi-wire, and a few other tools that would do for camping, but nothing for more than a few days camping. His knowledge of survival in the wild were limited to what he read in a few scrolls or pestered out of shinobi.

Even worse, the past events had also driven another point in. He was practically defenseless. His physical abilities, while above the average civilian, was completely insufficient for lone travels. He knew only a few ninjutsu, his fuinjutsu at this point would take far too long to arrange in a combat-situation, and to top it all off, his genjutsu-control was shot to hell.

And the final nail in the coffin was that the arm he had believed healed now hosted some kind of remnant of the very demon that had almost destroyed Konoha, and its control over the limb overrode his. While said limb seemed interested in preserving his life, Naruto still had no idea what it wanted. Adding all these facts up, the situation was a disaster.

The more Naruto thought about it, the more Naruto realized how hasty his decision had been. Granted, he had had good reasons to leave, as the actions of his... Minato and Kushina were inexcusable, and combined with whatever Natsuki had been doing could have very well led to his death, but Naruto had let his temper get the best of him. Instead of leaving like he had, he should have spent a bit more time in Konoha, gathering supplies and getting his genjutsu back under control. He would definitely have to get his temper under control, to prevent something like this from ever happening again. The way he was now he was completely unprepared for what awaited him.

Honestly, if it weren't for his arm, he might have actually considered turning around and heading back to Konoha, but now even that option was blocked, as he had no intention of becoming a guinea-pig or having his arm removed and dissected.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto pushed himself up. In the end, despite all the self-criticism, the situation was what it was, and sitting here moping would not change a thing. He could not go back to Konoha, so the only thing he could do was follow his original plan as good as he could and adapt to changes. He would go to the fire-temple, probably remain there a while longer than originally planned, and once he deemed himself ready, he would head towards Iwa. It still was the village where Konoha would least expect him, and after checking that he hadn't followed that thought and headed there anyways, Konoha would send their feelers elsewhere.

Of course, he couldn't simply head there as Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki, but he had come up with a disguise a while ago. By taking the _henge_ Natsuki had messed up, refining it by making the changes internal as well, and stabilizing everything with a few well-hidden seals, Naruto's disguise would not only be perfect down to voice and fingerprints, but it would also fool _henge_-detectors, and even the good old punch-'em-in-the-face-and-see-if-they-go-poof test. His identity was also completely planned out, the young crippled orphan and wandering artist being a good excuse, especially since it wasn't even a lie. His arm didn't work the way it was supposed to and would be kept in a sash, he considered himself an orphan, and he liked to paint, and was pretty good at it.

But he was getting ahead of himself. First he had to reach the fire-temple, then manage to hide there until the first wave of panic blew over, and get his genjutsu back under control. _After_ that, he could see what travel-plans were viable.

But perhaps it would be a good idea to prepare something that would make his hopefully unnoticed stay in the fire-temple easier.

-0-

Kushina collapsed into her couch, physically and mentally drained. Where had things gone so wrong? Was it last week, when Naruto learned of his arm? A few months ago, when his arm was crippled? Or had the problem started much sooner, when nobody realized that Natsuki was using her brother as a lightning-rod, channeling the youki that was never meant for him into his coils?

She felt like crying. What bitter irony that just this morning, when she had finally returned from the youki-hunt, she had actually believed that her family was slowly but surely growing back together after the disaster with Naruto's arm. She wondered if she had offended a deity somehow, or if the gods simply enjoyed laughing at her. She had lost her home and her entire family when Kumo, Kiri and Iwa had decided to join forces and end the threat of the Uzumaki-clan once and for all, barely escaping the massacre with little more than the clothes on her back, just barely making to Konoha.

There, she had been ostracized for her being a foreigner, her round face, and her long red hair. After a lot of blood, sweat and tears, she had finally managed to gain some friends, only for the war to break out and take most of them away from her.

After the war, she had married and gotten pregnant from the love of her life, Minato, and things were finally looking up. Then Kyuubi attacked.

More friends died, and for terrible minutes, she had believed her husband dead. When he returned to her, exhausted but alive, she had felt happier than ever before. Her dream of a family could finally come true.

She laughed joylessly. "And again the gods laugh at me." Without even realizing it, Natsuki, whose personality seemed exactly like her own, coupled with Minato's charisma and the burden she carried for the village, had weaseled her way into the hearts of Konoha, becoming everybody's darling. Without anyone realizing it, she had filled the hearts of her parents, slowly but steadily taking over the parts her calm and quiet brother occupied. Things had gone from bad to worse, and eventually it reached the point where both parents had lost sight of their son in the bright nature of Natsuki, which resulted in his crippling, caused because a child had been forgotten on his birthday by his own parents.

After that, things had changed. Both parents had realized what they'd done, and tried to somehow make up for it, but it had been too little, too late. When they finally tried to give him the proper attention, Naruto no longer wanted it.

Kushina poured herself some sake, and downed it in a single gulp. "And again, we did the worst possible thing." Looking back, it had really been the single most stupid course of action. Fearing that they would lose Naruto forever if they told him the true extent of his injury, neither of them had done so. Instead of sitting down and explaining the situation to Naruto, they instead excluded him from training, further alienating him. To Naruto it had to have looked as if the family was once again rejecting him, he being the only one in the entire family who could not join in their bondings.

In response, Naruto had distanced himself even further from them, going as far as to spend as little time in the compound as humanly possible. "And what did we do? We let him. 'Give him time, he needs to be alone'. What he needed was someone to show him that he wasn't alone." Everything was so clear in hindsight.

Even worse, as they had learned today, first from Hinata, then with Inoichi's help, Naruto's own sister had torn a permanent rift between him and all other children, over a childish dispute and despite attempts of reconciliation. So Naruto had been effectively abandoned by his family, and was experiencing what Kushina knew to be one of the most terrible feelings ever; to be alone in a crowd. Going through the reports again, Naruto's only 'friends' had been a few rats and crows that he fed. A seven-year-old that turned to animals for attention because he didn't get any from his fellow humans.

It was only after Naruto had left that Kushina realized just how far Naruto and his family had grown apart. Looking in the mirror, Kushina looked at a broken women. "What kind of mother am I, when I don't know anything about my own son?" She could immediately name Natsuki's hobbies, friends, favorite color, favorite food, likes, dislikes, dreams, fears, personal strengths, embarrassing secrets, favorite clothes, but when it came to her son, the only thing she could say was 'I think he liked ramen'. She couldn't even name his favorite flavor, for crying out loud!

Still, despite all these faults, she had noticed that Naruto was slowly starting to rebuild bridges with them. He had spent more time, opened his mouth for something else but statements that left them speechless with guilt, and had even started to smile at them occasionally. And then he learned the secret they had kept from him in the worst possible way.

Kushina wouldn't have needed Inoichi's evaluation to know how Naruto must have seen the situation. To him, it was the ultimate betrayal, and even worse, it showed Naruto that trying to mend bridges only made things worse, and that offering a hand in reconciliation towards his family would only lead to said hand being cut off. So all the progress made, all the work they, and especially Naruto, had put into trying to fix things, had been completely undone, the final bridge burned. It had been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Minato was probably still out with the other parents, discussing the consequences of what they had learned. It was a shock, and a punch in the gut for Minato and Kushina, when they learned that Naruto, who had gained the reputation of a troublemaker and notorious prankster, and had been punish accordingly often, had been used as a scapegoat not just by Natsuki, but practically every child in Konoha, and had not done a single prank in his entire life! Minato and Kushina had felt almost physically ill when they remembered all the times they had punished Naruto, whose vows of innocence had always paled against the accusations of at least three children, Natsuki often among them, that they had seen Naruto do it.

Tears formed in Kushina's eyes as she remembered Tsunade's reaction to the news. She, Minato and Jiraiya had drawn straws as to who would tell the blond sannin, and she had drawn the shortest one. It probably would have landed on her anyways, seeing that Tsunade wanted her for an examination for youki-corruption anyways.

-0-

_Flashback_

Kushina sat down, almost lifelessly as Tsunade took a blood-sample, wondering how she could start her confession, when the busty blond beat her to the punch.

"Kushina, I can tell something is wrong. Does it involve Naruto? Is he still not talking to you after he heard that his arm is permanently crippled?"

Kushina flinched, as if physically struck.

Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "You did tell him, right?"

Kushina's eyes were glued to the floor, tears forming. She shook her head, and broke into a wail.

Tsunade, while originally intending to tear Kushina a new one, was a bit baffled by the sudden outbreak. "Kushina, I do appreciate the remorse, but don't you think you're overreacting just a little bit? If it pains you that much, I can accompany you when you tell him, as emotional suppor..."

Kushina shook her head again, her voice wracked by sobs. "I-It's not that. He overheard us talking about his arm, and Minato said something in black humor, and Naruto heard it, and now... He's gone!"

Tsunade blinked. "Gone? Since when?"

Kushina sniffled. "We don't know. We've been busy with the youki-searches, so anywhere between this morning, (sniffle) and Monday." Briefly, she wondered if Tsunade's first blow would be enough to knock her out, or if she would get to enjoy the entire beating she was about to receive.

Tsunade's eyes widened, and her desk splintered beneath her fingers. "Monday? Didn't you have anyone look out for Naruto? I know for a fact Natsuki was with the Akimichi."

Kushina wailed again. "No! I don't know why, we were thinking of little but Naruto for weeks, but Monday morning, it was like he was erased from our thoughts."

Of course, neither Kushina nor Tsunade could have possibly known about Naruto's genjutsu, so Tsunade had to assume that the Namikaze had once again managed to somehow forget about their son. With a great show of will, Tsunade restrained her urge to pound Kushina to paste, and put on a calm visage. "Kushina, as much as I would like to ease your pain, all I can say is that you deserve what happened."

Kushina sobbed again. "That's not even the worst part."

Now Tsunade's eyes narrowed in distrust. "Then what is?"

Kushina dropped her head into her hands. "You know Naruto's reputation?"

Tsunade nodded. "A troublemaker. Not unusual in neglected children craving for attention."

Kushina winced under the subtle blow, but kept strong. "Turns out, he's not."

Tsunade blinked, not trusting her ears. "What?"

Kushina clenched her fists in anger. "Pretty much every child in Konoha was using my son as a scapegoat, including his own sister! He never played a single prank. And we punished him for them. Tsunade, I'm a horrible mother! I don't notice my son's suffering, and punish him for his sister's actions. Natsuki pumps youki into Naruto for seven years and I only realize it after he leaves."

Tsunade said nothing. What should she say? After all, she agreed with Kushina, and yelling at her wouldn't help. Though the temptation was oh so strong.

_End of Flashback_

-0-

Tsunade had finished her examination, and kicked Kushina out, muttering something about maybe visiting after the blood-sample was analyzed, depending on the results. Kushina understood that Tsunade was implying that their friendship was at the very least paused, if not completely broken. Though Kushina really had nobody but herself to blame.

Making a grab for the fifth sake-jar, when it was taken out of her hand. Looking up weakly, Kushina was surprised to see Tsunade. She hadn't even noticed the sannin enter the compound, let alone the living-room. Was she really that wasted?

Tsunade frowned. "I think you had more than enough."

Kushina looked up, her red face showing her intoxication. "Im havn't even shtarded (hickup) yet." she slurred out.

Tsunade shook her head. "Ooh no, you're done with the alcohol. As your doctor, I hereby forbid you from alcohol for... a few months. And from fish."

Kushina stared at Tsunade like she had sprouted a second head. "Vish? Vhy vich?"

Tsunade shrugged. "It could hurt the little one."

Kushina blinked, her intoxicated mind not able to piece the situation together. "L-little one?"

Tsunade smiled somewhat sardonically. "Congratulations Kushina, you're three weeks pregnant."

-0-

Naruto was panting in exhaustion. After the fire-temple had finally come into sight, Naruto had needed two more days to put up a few sealing-arrays he had designed around the temple.

Once he activated the array, the seals would use the ambient chakra in the area to create a hexagonal field, which should automatically put anyone entering it into a genjutsu programmed into the array, in this case _Mekura_. In doing so, Naruto had very effectively ensured that nobody in the fire-temple would notice him, as they would be trapped in _Mekura_ before he was even close, which also meant they couldn't spot him trying to put him under the genjutsu, and even better, it was effectively unbreakable, as even if someone tried to dispel it, he was still in the field, meaning that it would be immediately recast. Still, Naruto would be careful.

As it turned out, Naruto's first problem, aside from the fact that his stomach was doing a very realistic impression of a roaring lion to remind him that it was still empty, was to get into the temple. While he hadn't been spotted by anyone, despite walking right past them, there was no way in but the gate. The walls surrounding the temple absorbed chakra, meaning that it would be impossible to wall-walk, there were likely a few unpleasant surprises awaiting anyone trying to jump above it, and the gate was currently shut tighter than Natsuki's grip on a bowl of ramen. The gate probably could be pried open, or simply destroyed, but for one thing Naruto currently lacked the means to do so, and secondly doing so would be too obvious for his _Mekura_ to cover up.

Fortunately, help came soon.

-0-

Naruto took a step to the side, letting the bald man in the monk-robes pass without touching him.

The man completely ignored Naruto, reassuring the boy that his array was working, which was a great relief. After all, there hadn't exactly been time for proper tests, or any tests really.

The monk raised his hand towards the gate, closed his eyes, and focused. A golden glow appeared around his hand, and the gate opened. Naruto's arm pulsed at the glow, sending conflicting emotions of fear and greed through his body.

Deciphering the feelings, Naruto assumed that they were about the glow, and the youki was telling him two things. The first was _**I'm scared of that**_. The second one made even less sense than youki having fear, Naruto translating the emotion into an _**I want that**_. Why would anyone or anything desire something that terrifies them?

Still, if he spent any more time pondering, then he could wave his chance for entry goodbye, so Naruto hurried to pass the gates before they closed, only barely managing to avoid being crushed as the gate shut.

-0-

So far, so good. Trailing the boy had worked well so far, though the part with the gate had been a close call. He had to wait until the very last second before rushing too it, the steel gates slamming shut millimeters behind him. Had he been a single instant slower, things would have gotten unpleasant.

Still, he had made it, and that was what mattered. The boy seemed to prepare for a longer stay, if the preparations he had made so far were any indication, so there was no need to rush anything.

He would wait and observe for a few more days, then perhaps reveal himself to the boy.

-0-

The first day for Naruto ended without further incidents. He wandered the temple, trying to find his way around the temple that would become his home for at least a few weeks. Fortunately, the temple followed a fairly straightforward design, so it was not too difficult to navigate in.

As good fortune would have it, he found the laundry after only five rooms, all simple chambers in which the monks slept, and borrowed a straw-mat, a cushion, and a blanket, fairly confident that they wouldn't be missed in the near future, considering the dust covering all three.

Next, he secured himself a corner in one of the unused rooms, so that he would have a place to sleep, putting up a secondary array, which was much simpler, to hide his sleeping-corner, before looking for the food-storage. For one thing, he was hungry, and secondly he would need more provisions if he wished to eventually travel to Iwa. And thirdly, he was really hungry.

-0-

"Should have guessed, they are monks." Naruto muttered to himself. After a good half hour, he had finally found where the monks hid the grub, only to discover that there was hardly any meat, mostly rice and vegetables, in other words things that were better cooked. Thanking the gods he had been smart enough to buy a few metal bowls in Konoha, even though he had originally planned them to be bowls for Shiro, Kuro, and their friends, Naruto filled them with a bit of rice and a few veggies, and left, knowing that water was found here either in a well, or in a spring, and both were likely outside.

However, on his way out, he had a very interesting encounter. A boy, roughly his age was walking towards him, talking to the head priest, Chiriku of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, Naruto dimly recalled.

There were a few things off with the boy. For one thing, as far as Naruto had seen, he was at least ten years younger than any of the other monks, and his behavior, angrily arguing with the head-priest, didn't fit into the profile of the resident monks, who as far as Naruto had observed so far, seemed calm and serene, spending a lot of time meditating. Another thing that stuck out was that he was the only one who hadn't shaved his head, giving him the classical monk-look that Naruto had secretly dubbed 'The Egghead', his dark hair growing past his ears.

Even though it could be considered rude, Naruto decided to eavesdrop, especially when the boy started waving around a three-pronged claw.

"Chiriku-sama, please. You say this belonged to my father, but you won't tell me anything about him? Why?"

The monk sighed. "Sora, I gave you this because I believed you were mentally prepared, and deserving of it. Please do not make my faith misguided. Your father was a powerful man, and one I knew quite well, and respected. However, he was... misguided in his beliefs, a fact that regularly brought him into trouble. All in all, he was a good man, but you are not ready yet to learn everything. The other monks believed that I should never tell you anything, however I find that disrespectful against both you and my old friend's memory. Please do not try to push me further than this."

The young boy, Sora, bit his lip, but reluctantly nodded, though it was easy to tell that he was not happy about it. In fact, he seemed to barely be able to contain his anger.

Chiriku frowned at Sora's expression, but nonetheless gave him a kind smile. "Thank you. Now I'm very sorry for having to cut this short, but as you know, one of our temple's most sacred ceremonies is in less than a week, and I must prepare."

Sora's eyes widened at the casual dismissal, before he gave stiff nod. Chiriku gave a short bow, and left.

After roughly ten seconds, Sora punched the wall in anger. "Why does nobody trust me?" He asked loudly. Of course there was no answer, so after another moment, he spun on his heels and charged down the corridor.

-0-

Naruto's eyes widened, he had to jump to avoid the angry boy from running right into him. What happened next shocked him. His arm twitched, and Sora suddenly seemed rooted to the floor, before his head snapped in Naruto's direction.

Silence reigned as the two boys looked each other right in the eye, Naruto's wide in shock and fear, Sora's drawn together in a frown.

After a few more seconds, the young monk shrugged, and continued on his way, while Naruto slumped together in relief. For a second, he had thought his _Mekura_-array had failed, which would have meant serious trouble, as the people for one thing would be very interested in finding out how he managed to sneak in, before they would wrap him up like a Christmas-gift and send him back to Konoha, and that was if he was lucky.

Of course he knew that logically the array shouldn't have failed, as it was in essence the same array he had used on his old picture, attached to a so-called 'Blank Field-array' and an ambient-energy-gatherer as a battery. All in all, it was actually a very simple array that any intermediate seal-user could whip up on the fly, the only really difficult part being entering a genjutsu as complex as _Mekura_ into a seal-sequence, though here Naruto had the advantage of knowing everything about it, seeing that he was its inventor.

Still, something was special about the boy. Even though he was at the moment physically incapable of noticing Naruto, he had not only somehow sensed his presence, but actually pinpointed his location, which shouldn't have been possible seeing that Naruto had done nothing to warrant any attention from even the most distrusting of people, not to mention that at the moment it was impossible to dispel the genjutsu, and Naruto had the only key-seal that protected him from the array. Not to mention that Naruto didn't believe that the twitch of the arm at the time of the boy sensing him was a coincident. He would have to keep an eye on this Sora.

-0-

As it turned out, the temple had both a spring and a well, Naruto using the former for water, as there were a few rocks he could take, and use as support for his improvised wok, on which he had drawn a simple seal that converted chakra into heat, as he didn't want an open fire to draw attention from someone who might worry about the temple burning. That, and it was quicker.

After the first warm meal in days, Naruto contently retreated into his chosen sleeping-corner, and while planning his next steps, which mainly involved stockpiling essentials like food, drink, and clothes, and finding a sleeping-bag, he fell asleep. It had been a long day.

-0-

The next morning came far too soon. Naruto was blissfully slumbering, for once completely contend with the world, dreaming harmless and innocent dreams, when...

GOOOOOOONNNGG

He stood straight, and wide awake. It took nearly a minute until his pulse went down to what humans could even remotely call normal. Who could have expected that these masochistic monks would wake themselves by pounding on a twenty-foot gong?

Either way, there was little chance for sleep, so Naruto drowsily fought himself up, and started his morning-wash, ironically ending up doing so amongst the monks.

He snatched some of the breakfast, and after the meal, he sat down and watched the monks at their daily routine. He was surprised when he saw them spar against each other, before he remembered that the fire-temple consisted of battle-monks, not the normal ones, so it would be only natural that they did some fighting, though he did see many sitting and meditating.

Around noon, the trot was broken when the gates opened, and a single shinobi entered, his headband identifying him as a Konoha-nin.

It seemed that Minato and Kushina had finally realized that he was gone. Not interested in what Konoha had to say, Naruto turned away and left to search the temple for anything useful.

Had he stayed, he would have heard an interesting conversation between the head-monk and the Konoha-nin.

-0-

Chiriku smiled. "Ah, Asuma. Good to see you, old friend."

Asuma smiled back. "Good to see you too. How's the religious life treating you?"

Chiriku laughed. "Surprisingly well, actually. What brings you here?"

Asuma's smile dimmed slightly. "Nothing good, I'm afraid. You see, the situation is complicated. You know that residue of Kyuubi's youki remained in Konoha after it attacked, right?"

Chiriku's face darkened as he thought of a young monk with a cruel burden that he didn't deserve, nor should be holding. "How could I not? After Kazuma's... action."

Asuma followed his friend's gaze, until it landed on a young monk practicing with an oddly familiar claw. "Is that..."

"Yes, that's Sora." Chiriku replied.

"I see. He looks a lot like his father." Asuma noted, before remembering the original topic. There was little point dwelling over things that they couldn't change, and Kazuma had paid the ultimate price for his actions. "Either way, last week the youki suddenly disappeared. A search was started, without success, but it seems that while everyone was busy, the Hokage's son used the chance to run away. Learning the facts, I can't even say that I blame the kid, his situation was bad. Turns out his sister, the host of the Kyuubi, was unknowingly pumping youki into him, and it was killing him from the inside. Nobody noticed because, well, nothing like this has ever happened before. Adding to that, the kid was a scapegoat for the village's children. Either way, his parents are very worried about him, especially since he can't use his left arm after an accident involving seals, so I was sent here to ask you one of your monks saw him. He's seven, average size for someone that age, blue eyes, and spiky hair so blond you'd think someone dumped a bucket of yellow paint on his head."

Chiriku frowned, before he shook his head. "I'm sorry, but the last weeks were fairly quiet. Aside from a few deliveries, there has not been a single soul here, aside from the monks, and certainly not someone who would match your profile. I'm sorry that I can't help you, but the boy was not here."

Asuma sighed. "Well, I didn't really expect anything else. Still, thanks." He pulled out a cigarette.

Chiriku frowned. "Asuma, this is a temple. I would ask that you don't light that until you have passed the gates."

The bearded jonin looked at his friend, at the cigarette, and finally the temple, before he nodded, taking the cancer-stick into his hand. "Of course. Well, there's nothing left for me to do here, but please keep an eye out for the kid, his parents are going crazy with worry."

Chiriku nodded. "Of course. We'll notify you immediately if we find something. Have a safe journey."

-0-

After the Konoha-nin had left, the gate being a very good indicator, Naruto came back out, having made a decision. Chiriku was the head-priest, and he was a former member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. If there really was anything interesting here, Chiriku would know where it was, so he'd tail the man for a few days.

Fortunately it was not a long wait. That very evening, after dinner, the monk walked past his room, and into a hidden chamber. He patted a large scroll, spoke a few prayers, and mumbled to himself. After an hour, he left, and Naruto was alone in the room.

There were pictures everywhere, all showing a group of people in different settings, though not in all pictures the group was fully assembled. One of them caught Naruto's eye, as in it, the entire group, twelve people altogether, standing in two rows, a thirteenth figure in the center, one that Naruto immediately recognized. The daimyo of Hi no Kuni. So these had to be the Twelve Guardian Ninja. Apparently Chiriku had built himself a shrine of sorts, a personal refuge for him and him alone. Honestly, were it not for the scroll that Chiriku had re-hidden in a secret compartment, Naruto would have immediately turned around and left. However, he wanted to know what was in that scroll.

Carefully pulling it out, though not before carefully disabling an alarm-array, he opened it, and had to bite back an outburst of hysteric laughter.

It was even better than he could have dreamed! Written and explained in the scroll were the jutsu of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, even their most infamous one, _Limelight_. It was literally a godsend, as even though Naruto had decided to be a seal- and genjutsu-master, he had no intention of being rendered helpless in a situation where neither of those techniques were effective. Of course he knew that there was no way he would be able to learn all of these techniques, especially since _Limelight_ required four people, but that didn't mean he shouldn't know the jutsu, even if he couldn't perform them.

And he hadn't given up on his idea of crafting a seal that would perform a jutsu on its own when chakra was poured into it, so having the arsenal of a group as famous as the Twelve Guardian Ninja to craft into seals would not be a bad thing either. The jutsu, or at least some of them, could perhaps even be used as a bargaining-chip, though Naruto would have to be very careful with what he gave to whom.

Naruto had heard that the daimyo had once asked his guardians to place their knowledge into a scroll, so that in an event where all of them would be wiped out, the next generation of guardians could still benefit from their predecessors' knowledge. After the attempted coup and the effective although unofficial disbanding, one of the survivors had taken it for safe-keeping.

And even though Naruto had no idea what possessed Chiriku to hide the scroll instead of destroying it, Naruto sure wasn't about to complain. In fact, he had a new goal. When he left the temple, he would have the entire scroll memorized.

-0-

The next few days passed in a blur for Naruto, a routine of waking up curtsey of the Gong of Doom, washing, eating, watching the monks train in the morning, lunch, and learning from the scroll in the afternoon when all the monks were busy meditating. However, his sixth day would be quite a surprise for the young boy.

-0-

He had observed long enough. The boy had settled in, and had developed a behavioral pattern that allowed him to predict where the boy would be. He had even found out what the odd field the boy had set up did, though it irked him that it turned out to be something that made others forget and ignore him. He himself had found himself back in the forest outside the temple twice, when he had for a single moment lost focus of his target, after which he was unable to even think about locating the boy until he had left the field, and even then only after a while.

It was time to make contact.

-0-

Naruto froze. He had just entered the hidden room, and was about to pull out the scroll, when he felt a pair of eyes resting on his back. A moment later, he heard a light sound that seemed familiar, though Naruto was unable to place it. He gulped, and spun around, expecting Chiriku or perhaps another monk looking at him, only to find... nothing?

Both the room and the doorway were empty, though he still felt like was being watched. Then again, he had felt like he was being watched ever since he entered the temple, so perhaps it was only his nerves. Yeah, that was it, his mind was playing tricks on him, he probably was exhausted from all the reading with too little sleep. That, the permanent fear of being found and carted back to Konoha, plus the stinging pain in his chest he had for a few days had made him paranoid. Yeah, that had to be "...ik"

What was that? Naruto's head shot left and right, searching for the origin of the noise, growing frantic as there was still nothing. The sound came again, and this time Naruto could pinpoint it. He slowly looked down... and his eyes nearly fell out of his head.

"Shiro!" He called out. And indeed, it was Shiro, the rat that Naruto had befriended back in Konoha. Naruto hesitantly held out his hand, and to his surprise, the rat jumped on it, and scaled it to his shoulder, where he sat down, seemingly completely content with the world at the moment.

Naruto blinked in shock. "Did you follow me all the way here?" he wondered, the rat simply giving a small squiek in response. Naruto's face broke into a smile. "Thanks." He gently scratched the rat's head, who clearly didn't mind the attention, leaning into Naruto's finger.

Naruto frowned, then shrugged with the unoccupied shoulder. The scroll wasn't going anywhere. "Lets find you something to eat."

Shiro squieked in agreement.

-0-

After Naruto had gotten Shiro some grub, the rat apparently perfectly satisfied with raw rice, he was somehow not surprised when he found a raven outside. Kuro and Shiro had been all but inseparable in Konoha, so it really was only logical that the raven had also followed him, though Naruto found himself slightly relieved that they hadn't brought any other friends. He wasn't sure just how much food he could smuggle out of the temple without causing a disturbance, which really was the last thing he needed.

Still, for the first time in ages, Naruto felt truly happy. He had lost his faith in others, having bonded with the rats, crows and ravens precisely because unlike with humans, there was no attachment, no expectations. He brought them food, they gave him company, and when either party felt it was enough, they would not meet again, as both parties could and had lived well enough without the other. A simple system, and it had worked without hitch, and with both sides aware that it was strictly temporary.

To find that they had followed him, going miles and miles and leaving their territories, their entire existence behind, just to be with him, moved Naruto to the edge of tears. He didn't know why they did it, as here it would not be so simple to bring food, and knew that it was very possible that both would one day be cone when he went somewhere too far away for the animals, but for now he was grateful for their company. It was nice to know that someone cared.

Still, even trough his sentimental moment, Naruto had enough sense to quickly grab a fine brush and put the key on Kuro's beak and Shiro's stomach, though in the latter case the fur had been an annoyance. Still, now the two could freely remain within the field, undisturbed by the array, though Naruto was surprised when the animals stayed still until he was done. They were both pretty smart.

Now that the reunion was properly celebrated with food for all three, Naruto found that it was time to get back to the scroll, to rehearse the learned to ensure it was not forgotten, and to learn more. The animals quietly rested on his shoulders.

-0-

Another day had passed, and Shiro and Kuro had both remained by his side the entire night, for which Naruto was thankful. He liked the presence of the two.

Shiro had forsaken his place on Naruto's right shoulder, instead climbing the boy's head, using his blond hair as a nest, though thankfully Kuro seemed to prefer his shoulder, which was shielded from the raven's claws by a few layers of cloth, to his unprotected head.

However, something was different this day. A tension was in the air, easily felt by even the most unobservant individuals. An odd mix of excitement, nervousness, and determination.

The first real oddity that Naruto noticed was the simple fact that there was no breakfast. At every other day, the monks had eaten together, the boy, Sora, generally a small distance away from the group, but this morning, Sora was the only one that ate, a bitter expression on his face.

Hoping that the boy would give him some clue as to what was going on, Naruto followed Sora, forsaking his study of Chiriku's scroll for the day.

Sora did lead them to the other monks, who had apparently gathered in the inner sanctum of the temple, Sora stopping at the entrance and throwing angry glares into the room where the entire temple had gathered, currently placing straw mats on the ground. After a few seconds, Sora's face darkening more and more, the young monk apparently couldn't take it any longer, and stormed away.

Naruto noticed that Chiriku was sadly watching the boy go, but the head-priest simply shook his head, before turning to his fellow monks. It seemed like he intended to hold a speech. Good, Naruto wanted to know just what the hell was going on here.

-0-

"Brothers," Chiriku called out, his face serene. "you all know why we have gathered here. Today we hold one of our most sacred ceremonies, the Rite of Unity. Through our daily meditation we are able to use the Senzoku no Sai, the very thing that makes our temple unique, a gift from the gods. Today we will channel it, not into the technique, but into each other. We will purify our souls, and those of our fellow brothers. To prepare, none of us have eaten anything since the last day's breakfast, to steel our spirit. Once we have all reached the state of meditation needed, we shall begin the second part, gathering and further purifying the entire energy within our bodies, one at a time. Do not worry if a bit of the energy escapes you in that step, it is natural and as we all will produce the Senzoku no Sai, it will not matter. Do not let your heart waver. Once that is gone, the technique will be initiated, but there will be no target. Then we return our gift to nature. Are you all prepared? If you feel ill, speak now, as the ceremony will take hours, and once it has begun, interrupting the process is difficult. I do not need to remind you all of brother Yusen, whom we nearly lost to fever in last year's ceremony."

Somber silence filled the air, but none of the monks rose. It seemed they were all healthy. Chiriku waited another minute, just to be sure, before finally nodding, satisfied. "Very well, let us begin then."

The monks all sat down to meditate, and absolute silence reigned.

Naruto looked around uncomfortably, slightly worried that the focus of the monks might enable them to locate him. Also, the pain in his chest was steadily getting worse, a stinging that came in pulses, as if someone was slowly drilling a hole into the center of his chest.

Then a soft glow of yellowish golden chakra began seeping out of the monks, and the hole in Naruto's chest was being filled with acid. His eyes bulged, and he felt like he was breathing molten steel. Stumbling forward, Naruto fell to his knees right next to the meditating Chiriku, who noticed nothing. Naruto was uncertain whether that was a good or a bad thing, as the man possibly could have helped. Naruto shivered. Was he going to die here, unnoticed? Would the stench of his corpse be enough, or would he rot away to blank bones, without anybody ever noticing? Tears escaped Naruto's eyes as the pain slowly began to spread in his chest, now no longer focused on just one small spot.

But slowly, the pain dulled. After what could have been seconds, minutes, or even hours, Naruto managed to fight himself to his knees, and looked around. Apparently his squirming had somehow brought him right next to the head-monk, the man now so close that Naruto would have been able to touch him by simply reaching out.

The next thing Naruto noticed was that he had probably fainted from the pain, as it was definitely much later than when the pain started. For one, the still open door gave a good look at the open hallway, and the shadows cast by the sun were pointing in a completely different direction than they had the last time he checked. Also, the monks looked different. While their meditative poses hadn't changed, the odd glow was now no longer faint, but a strong aura extending almost a foot in every direction, and arm-thick extensions connected the monks with each other, the whole thing resembling a giant golden spiderweb.

Then the energy began to flow in a specific direction, until the aura surrounding all monks was gone, and the connections not thicker than a spider's thread. Except for one monk, who was, as the sweat on his brow clearly told, strained by the task of containing the entire chakra-load of the collective within himself. With a frown, he compressed it, sucking it into himself, before a now slightly less yellow and more golden energy shot out of him, following one of the threads to the next monk. The process repeated itself again with every monk, the energy becoming more golden, more focused with every focus, before finally, it reached Chiriku. After the head-priest compressed it, the expanding aura was almost blindingly golden, beginning to slightly lean towards a platinum glow.

The stinging pain was back, but Naruto was distracted by his left arm. It had placed its hand on his knee, and apparently sucked a bit of his chakra out, with which it was now coating itself from fingertips to wrist, before it reached into the aura the monk released after a second compression.

Naruto's eyes widened. What was that crazy limb doing? His right hand shot forward, grabbing his left arm just below the wrist, yanking it back less than an inch from Chiriku's bald head. The left arm struggled for another second, before it blindsided Naruto by going with Naruto's pull, slamming the hand, which held a glob of the platinum glow, encased by Naruto's blue chakra, into his chest, right where the pain was.

Naruto felt the strangest feeling ever. It was like an empty space in his chest was filled, before the edges seemed to clam down on whatever was filling it, causing not pain, but a feeling of pressure inside of Naruto's chest.

Taking a few deep breaths, Naruto decided that it was best to leave the ceremony, while he still could. That instance with the head-priest had been too close for comfort.

However, just as he had reached the doorway, he heard someone standing up. Turning around, he saw that Chiruku had risen, his right arm pointing down with the palm down and parallel to the ground, while the left one was in a half-sign, rat, he believed, though it wasn't easy to tell from the distance and with the glow surrounding him. Then Chiriku spoke.

"_Raigo: Senjusatsu_."

Naruto felt himself engulfed by an outburst of energy, and feeling it extend in every direction, for a second worried that it might shatter his barrier, before he remembered that the barrier would not offer any resistance to the energy, and thus neither attempt to repel nor absorb any energy that could disrupt the arrays.

Still, he had seen something interesting today, and it was best to leave it at that and return to his sleeping-place. As ridiculous as it sounded, he and his arm had something to discuss.

-0-

Naruto glared at his arm, Kuro had temporarily given up his perch in favor for Naruto's leg, seeing that the boy was sitting. "Look, I was okay with the idea of a symbioses, as odd as I found that my arm suddenly had a mind of its own, but that stunt just now went too far! I don't care what you are, or what you're planning, but I can't allow you to endanger all that I have worked for like this. If something like this happens one, just one more time, I'm wrapping you in bandages plastered with suppression-seals until you can't even twitch, capito?"

The arm was unresponsive, but Naruto felt a surge of calmness wash over him, and guessed that the arm understood.

A second later, two voices were heard as two monks walked by Naruto's hidden lair.

-0-

"The ceremony was draining as always." The first spoke.

"Indeed," the second replied "but at least there were no complications. Last year was bad enough, but do you remember three years ago, when that brat actually tried to participate?"

The first snorted. "Of course. In the end, we had to cancel the ceremony, because the demon-child was not only disrupted the entire connection between us monks, but collapsed. I know that the head-priest has a kind heart, and it's not like I think that giving a second chance is fundamentally wrong, but anyone could have told him that Sora and the ceremony would not mix."

A barking laugh came from the second. "Yes, a demon participating in a holy ceremony, that had to go wrong."

"The head-priest does not like that word used in reference to the boy." The first scolded, though one could hear that he secretly agreed.

"Well," the second answered "If the shoe fits... Then again, he's not even real, just a cheap knock-off. The imitation of a demon made with scavenged remnants of the real deal. Almost sad when you think about it. What is he even doing in a temple? I can see the potential value for a shinobi-village, but a temple?"

"The only village we could give him to without committing treason would be Konoha," The first one pondered "and if the rumors are true, Konoha already has the original, so for what would they need an inferior copy?"

"Yeah, useless in every sense of the word." The second one finished "So looks like we'll be stuck with that brat for quite a while."

-0-

As the monks passed, Naruto sat there, deep in thought, absentmindedly scratching Shiro's back, the rat leaning into his finger, while it and Kuro were tearing pieces out of the piece of bread Naruto had given them.

"Interesting, very interesting." The blond boy mused, a smile on his lips. "Perhaps I should meet this Sora?

* * *

Chapter 8 is done. I have so much to say, I don't know where to start.

First, thank you all so much, my beloved readers. Thanks to you all, I have broken through that magical threshold of 1000 reviews. That had been a dream of mine ever since I first found this site, long before I actually posted my first story. And now it has come true *sniff*. Thank you all so much, and I hope that we will continue to keep up the good work.

Secondly, I guess I should explain the long period without update. You see, I was drafted into the military. This story more than any other I have written so far, barring perhaps Boutoku no Naruto, relies on emotion, and since I am only an amateur-writer, I work on a very simple basis to get as much emotion as I can into my stories. I put my heart into them. I try to write so that the emotions I'm trying to implant flow into the story, I'm trying to write so that it moves me, as what good can a story be that doesn't even move its creator? So, after much thought, I had decided to pause my writing for this story while I was in boot-camp, as I felt that I would not be able to enter that certain mindset needed for really putting one's heart into something while in a semi-permanent state of mental and physical exhaustion. So rather than produce some half-assed crap that would ruin the story for good, I decided to take a break from it until I was relaxed enough to actually do something. I hope you all understand.

Now, some of the more observant readers will likely think 'Wait a minute, from the date he gave on his account, his boot-camp should have ended in January, what's with the hold-up?' Truth be told, this chapter was not easy to write. I actually found a small problem with my plans so far. It is surprisingly difficult to show real emotions and emotional growth if the protagonist is absolutely isolated. You need something to bounce things off of, some point from which conversation, even one-sided conversation, can start from. For that reason, I brought Shiro and Kuro back into play. Originally I had planned to have those two appear later, perhaps in Iwa, to show just how far those two followed him, and the lengths they were willing to go for Naruto, but I realized if I had to show Naruto in complete isolation for such extended periods, I would drive myself insane trying to find anything that would make the travel more than a complete bore to read.

Truth be told, I myself am not quite satisfied with this chapter. Most of it is okay, but I can't really get the scene with Naruto and his arm to work the way I want it it to. After like twenty tries, this is the best I managed. Sorry.

Another change was that, due to the large number of requests, I decided to add another scene involving Konoha. Granted, the last twist probably only increased the interest, but I'm afraid that this really will be the last we hear of Konoha for a while.

So, the first stop is the fire-temple. Nobody guessed it, which I think is a good thing, as it means I managed to surprise my readers. It is a nearly perfect hideout, as long as one can manage to keep out of the sight of the monks, as when they say that Naruto isn't there, Konoha will believe it, thus Naruto throws all those looking for him off his track. I explained the barrier so you don't complain about Naruto being an uber-character. The array consists of three parts, two of which Naruto simply has to connect with each other, a simple task. The only problem was translating _Mekura_ into a seal-sequence, though Naruto as its creator has an easier time than most. So Naruto's work was less super-brilliant creation, and more modification with just a single piece of independent crafting. And no, this is not a viable solution for entering any place he wants without anyone realizing it. Any of the five major villages, and probably a few of the minor ones too, would either spot Naruto while he sets the array up, or they would notice the barrier, as it ironically does not protect itself from detection. It hides Naruto and what he does, nothing more, nothing less. So it won't be used too often.

To those wondering, no, Sora will not become Naruto's first traveling-companion. The temple would search for him, and Naruto doesn't need two groups of people after him right after he gained his freedom.

Oh, and I reconsidered the thing with the eyes. The arm can, on one eye, give a layer of chakra that will highlight the target it wants, but no doujutsu. They will be altered by the arm.

Also, someone asked me how old Naruto and Natsuki are. They are seven. Regarding Natsuki's attraction to Kyuubi's male form, that wasn't really sexual interest, but more that Natsuki and her friends have pieced together a image of what is 'cool' and 'awesome', and Kyuubi just matched the profile. Kinda like how Sasuke gained fangirls, even though at twelve you generally don't have much of a libido yet. There are exceptions, but the main idea is correct. I once had a five-year-old swoon to me about how hot and attractive Robby Williams is, and I don't remember anything ever creeping me out like that. The same principle applies to Natsuki here.

Regarding Natsuki. My decision to make the dominate Natsuki into the dark-self was in fact not a cheap attempt at explaining why the girl is evil. If those that spouted that had read more closely, they would see that Light-Natsuki is in fact artificially made by Kyuubi using what's left of her goodness and mixing it with positive emotions the fox has harvested in the past. So Natsuki is evil of her own choice, what I did was give an explanation for a redemption. I'm not saying that Natsuki will be completely forgiven, but a stupid, selfish and evil character is terribly one-dimensional to write, and I am not a fan of ridiculously extreme bashing. I want characters in my story, not stereotypes. And Natsuki's change will not be instantaneous, that would be silly. It's a slow and gradual change, though it will be done before the genin-exams.

Regarding harems. I carefully considered it, and decided that, should I make one, it will probably be like canon-Naruto's harem, meaning girls, and women, fall in love with him, but Naruto is oblivious to it, since despite his intelligence, he was the outcast in Konoha, so he knows little of social interactions.

Now to answer a few questions.

Q: How good is Naruto's healing?  
A: It is good, but it's not omnipotent. Remember, this is not jinchuuriki-healing, but Kabuto's healing, meaning that Naruto has to have enough chakra to heal the injury, and that more severe injuries would take more to heal.

Q: Will Natsuki ever be able to use Kyuubi's power?  
A: The cloak perhaps, but not the power over emotions. Even redeemed, she simply doesn't have the necessary delicacy for such a complex and fragile thing as emotion.

Well, I think the chapter is long enough as it is, so I'll end it here. My loyal readers,

Please Review


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